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Price, 30 Cts. 


jB^inig^lcohol 

^ A 

f^omanee oj ti^e- 

BY 

a rnj Tljereditl)^ 



KING ALCOHOL 


A 

ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE 



HARRY MEREDITH 




i/srwy 


NEW YORK 
1893 




Copyright, 1893, 

By harry MEREDITH. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Chapter I.— The Ark, 3 

Chapter II. — The Price of a Man’s Soul, .... 9 

Chapter III. — “ For Better or for Worse,” .... 16 

Chapter IV. — “We will take His Word,” .... 28 

Chapter V. — From Father to Son, 33 

Chapter VI. — A Fate Worse than Death, . . . .37 

Chapter VII. — A Child of Sin, 38 

Chapter VIII. — His Light Fails, 44 

Chapter IX. — The Critical Day, 50 

Chapter X. — The Ark of Safety, . . . . . *57 

Chapter XI. — The Awful Prediction, 58 

Chapter XH. — The Light that Never Fails, ... 62 

Chapter XHI. — Ready for the Rack, .... 72 

Chapter XIV. — The Oath 77 

Chapter XV.— The Light does not Fail, .... 83 

Chapter XVI . — The Gauntlet Thrown Down, ... 86 

Chapter XVH. — On the Rack, . . . <. . .88 

Chapter XVHL— Mr. Peck of Worcester, . . . .94 

Chapter XIX.— A Pitiful Exchange, 98 

‘ Chapter XX.— “A Serpent in a Nest of Doves,” . . 105 

Chapter XXL— I would Know Him in the Dark, 


no 


2 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter XXII. — The Final Arrangements, 

Chapter XXIII. — Dancing and Kissing, . . . . 

Chapter XXIV. — A Night of Peril, 

Chapter XXV. — A Woman with a Head on Her Shoulders, 
Chapter XXVI. — A Female Detective, . . . . 

Chapter XXVII. — The Duel in the Snow, . . . . 

Chapter XXVIH. — The Light Follows Him, , ' . 

Chapter XXIX. — King Alcohol, 

Chapter XXX. — A Convicted Felon, ... 

Chapter XXXI. — Good-by! Sweethearts, Good-by! . 


PAGE 

113 

116 

120 

126 

130 

134 

138 

140 

142 

152 


KING ALCOHOL 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE 



KING ALCOHOL: 

A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE ARK. 

God said, “ Let there be snow,” and there was snow; 
deep in the “mountain valley, ’’and warmly bonneting 
the giant bowlders ! 

The everlasting forest, sleeping for a season, caught 
the falling flakes, and the sinewy pines held aloft their 
mighty arms, in mute expostulation against the frozen 
shower that covered them with a spotless fleece. 

A whitened harvest everywhere, and silence over all ! 
Except at four p.m., when the belated train on the 
“American Central” worried into the station at Blue 
Wing, and cast out several men and women. 

This was the event of the short winter day : a corpo- 
ral ’s guard of passengers, and a leather mail bag! 

No long line of Pullman coaches now, radiant in 
uniforms of dark green and glittering gold! These 
splendid conveyances were humbly lodged in their sheds ; 
their old-time passengers fishing in Florida. 

Two travellers entered a sleigh at the station, and 
after a careful “ tucking in” by the attentive driver, sat 
in silence and waited for the end. 

3 


4 


KING alcohol: 


One of these was a young woman, erect and serious; 
she looked straight ahead, and seemed to be investigat- 
ing the drift-covered road, up which the excited horses 
were plunging. 

At every turn she peered eagerly forward, as if look- 
ing for something she was anxious to see, yet dreaded 
to find. 

Her companion was buried to the chin in robes. One 
hand lay exposed, the fingers of which plucked ner- 
vously at the wool covering ; the other was hidden and 
tightly clinched. 

This man did not breathe ; his respiration was a suc- 
cession of gasps and sighs, now and then a moan. 

Small wonder! 

Every nerve in his body was twisting, quivering, 
vibrating, like the strings of a rudely struck harp. 

He shivered ; his eyes were full of tears ; his lips and 
chin fluttered like disturbed water, and ever and anon 
he plucked tufts of hair from the warm covering. 

The cedars and pines to the right and left were white 
and motionless, untenanted; yet this man saw on the 
top of a tree — 

A huge black crow. 

The sleigh flew past, and on the wall of the bridge 
sat a white rabbit as large as a setter dog. 

The sufferer ground his teeth together and babbled 
a series of words, trite and vapid, yet comforting balm 
to him; words he had heard from the lips of the loving 
girl by his side very often of late, and now he mum- 
bled them over and over. 

“ Nothing there, dear ! nothing there !” Another turn 
and over the fence stood a giraffe eating snow from the 
tree- tops. The animal bowed and stretched his long 
neck across the road. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 5 

The horses bowled through the monster’s head and 
then ran over a bear. 

“Anna,” moaned the wretch, clutching her dress, 
“tell me there is nothing! nothing! nothing!” 

“Nothing, dear! Do not be afraid,” said this com- 
forting girl. 

“ I thought they might really have come out of those 
dark woods.” 

“No, John, nothing.” 

In spite of the human pathos contained in this dia- 
logue, the driver smiled grimly, as he faced the driv- 
ing storm and the falling night. 

Anna’s brow contracted with a nervous pang, the 
closely pressed lips signified anxiety. 

“ Are we nearly there?” she inquired of the driver. 

Roberts turned to her with a bracing smile and shouted 
back: “Yes, miss; right ahead of the next turn.” 

Another dash of the spirited animals, and the lights 
of a handsome hotel fell on the snow before them. 

The ornamented iron dog on the lawn covered with 
frozen crust appeared to the sick man as a polar bear, 
and incapable of further endurance he uttered a sharp 
cry, and would have leaped from the sleigh had not 
Anna’s arm been thrown around him. 

“Nothing there, dear!” 

“ No, indeed, sir,” repeated Roberts cheerily; “ noth- 
ing there, and if anything comes we will give it a fine 
chase.” 

They drove into the electric beams and were handed 
from the sleigh. 

The front doors of the building were thrown open 
and two lively boys in gray and gold hustled the satch- 
els and bundles. 

Anna accepted the proffered arm of a genial-faced 


6 


KING ALCOHOL: 


gentleman, and wandered with him in the direction of 
a stained-glass door over which was a sign, “ Manager’s 
Office.” 

The suffering man was left to himself, trembling at 
what he saw ; or, rather, at what he did not see. 

To him all was confusion worse confounded ; he was 
surrounded by foes, armed for his destruction. 

At first he thought of fighting, of desperate defence 
and determined attack. 

Then came a change to idiotic mood ; and he wanted 
to laugh, and did laugh, and a dozen men beside him 
laughed with him. And when he pointed out the old 
lady playing billiards with her crutch, they all acqui- 
esced in his mood, and professed to see her likewise, 
and one young fellow smoking a cob pipe assured him 
that the old woman was “a regular visitor,” and “a 
very worthy individual.” 

Fortunate man this ; just in time, his admission into 
the “Ark of Safety.” 

Next he pointed out oranges on the mantel, and eggs 
on the floor. The cob-pipe man pretended to pocket 
the oranges, and walked with care so as to avoid crush- 
ing the eggs. 

The massive doors shut with a clang that seemed 
to the weakened mortal like a peal of artillery, and 
with a wailing sob he cried out and darted into a 
corner. 

Blessed sufferer ! doubly blessed in spite of your pres- 
ent woe, for you are safe under the glorious beams of 
the light that never fails. 

The large apartment was comfortably filled with gen- 
tlemen of all ages and conditions. Each face wore a 
reassuring smile, yet he thought them a legion of devils. 
A tall, handsome man with a lion eye and tawny beard 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 7 

now came through the crowd, and held out to him a 
glass half filled with pure whiskey. 

Spring water to the gasping creature in the wilder- 
ness of burning sand. 

The shaking hand could not clutch the glass, so the 
good Samaritan held the tumbler to his quivering lips 
and let him drink. 

Then for a few moments he gained, and looked around 
him without absolute terror, and greedily warmed him- 
self at the fire of blazing-logs. 

The faces lost their fearful cast, their demoniac lus- 
tre, and gradually became human. 

One by one the sympathizing men came forward, 
made themselves known, and offered friendly ser- 
vices. 

Then he picked up a portion of his lost reason, found 
rational speech, and announced his own name. 

John Candor^ of New York ! 

The generous draught of alcoholic tonic went to the 
necessary spot, touched the right organs, and in a meas- 
ure soothed him. 

But for this relief he must have gone mad. For the 
time the crisis was averted, the agony postponed. 

The billiard table and the old lady with the crutch 
were no longer visible. 

How kind all were to him ! just like old friends, 
brothers. And the gentleman who had saved his reason 
with the two ounces of whiskey, and who now gently 
held his hand and counted his galloping pulse, who 
was he? 

Suddenly poor John began to wonder, and try to re- 
call. The weak brain did not respond. He could not 
place himself, he could not realize his present circum- 
stances or condition. All behind him was a blank, 


8 


KING alcohol: 


This condition of mind was provocative of delirium, 
he began to tremble new. Alcohol and nerves will not 
mix creditably. Then with a tremulous gulp he asked: 

“Where am I?” 

“ Oh, you are in a comfortable hotel, where all are 
your friends,” answered a fine-looking lawyer from 
Washington, taking possession of John’s shoulders with 
both hands, and giving him a friendly caress. 

This was all very well, and the sick man gained mo- 
mentary comfort, but immediately afterward his eyes 
fell on the wide, gaping, half-darkened stairway that 
led to the upper floors. 

Coming down the steps he saw a man clad in dress- 
ing-gown and slippers. The new-comer was gaunt, un- 
shaven, dishevelled — a weird make-up. 

This poor fellow’s wife and mother and little ones 
had often wept to see him as John Candor saw him. 

And at the sight of him now there came to John the 
awful want of Anna’s gentle touch and soothing voice: 

“ Where is she, where is Anna?” cried he, shrinking 
from the man above him. 

“ Where is Anna 

The spectacle on the stairs answered with a grin : 

“I am Anna!” 

A sturdy fellow in a blue uniform cautiously moved 
between Candor and the other. 

“Anna, Anna,” feebly moaned poor John. “You 
are not Anna. There is something wrong here, you 
are deceiving me. Gentlemen, where am I?” 

The man on the stairs threw one leg over the banis- 
ters and with a chuckling laugh answered : 

“ You are in a Keeley Institute ! ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


9 


CHAPTER II. 

THE PRICE OF A MAN’s SOUL. 

In a front room of No. — Fifty-second Street, an old 
man was dying. One wasted arm hung limp from the 
bed, the hand touching the floor. 

A massive creature last year; now face, body, and 
shanks shrunk to pitiful extremes. 

Six feet John Candor, Sr., once stood; health, vigor, 
and activity in every motion, grandly endowed with a 
perfect animal organism. 

Now dying unresistingly, giving up his ghost as 
feebly as a babe. 

It does not matter to us at this moment what his dis- 
ease may have been ; perhaps even his physicians disa- 
greed on that point. We will simply class it as — 

Death. 

For dead he was, to all intents and purposes; that is 
a condition of which the most unassuming may attempt 
a diagnosis. 

Death ! 

The extreme penalty of natural law. The inevitable 
punishment of birth. 

John Candor, the dying, had the face of the man 
we read of in our last chapter, and whom we saw safely 
bestowed under the roof of the " Susquehanna Institute. ” 

A better face, however, for even now, with the ashes 
of dissolution on his brow, there was manhood in its 
best form in every curve and protuberance of the dear 
old fellow’s countenance. 


lO 


KING alcohol: 


All men and women loved John Candor, the father, 
and this was something to be proud of, for a man must 
be well equipped to win the suffrages and good-will of 
our strangely endowed fellows. 

They also loved the son whenever he permitted their 
affectionate regard, whenever he stood up before them 
as God made him to stand, brave, free-hearted, un- 
selfish, undaunted, the counterpart of his father; but 
Heaven pity him ! 

A dipsomaniac ! 

Old Candor loved his boy with a multiplied tender- 
ness because of his infirmity, just as he would have done 
had young John been a hunchback, or had he been born 
blind, or without feet. 

The hunted, frightened look we saw on the quivering 
face of the man driving by the phantom animals was 
not apparent on the calm countenance of his dying 
father. 

Now, my friendly or unfriendly reader as the case 
may be, this night’s work, as I am about to narrate it, 
happened many months before Anna Candor went up 
the Susquehanna road, with John, her brother, clinging 
to her robes, and piteously imploring her with baby 
wails to whisper: 

“Nothing there, dear.” 

I did not intend to write of John and Anna, and the 
“Home of Rescue,” until I had shown you the death- 
bed of his father and introduced you to his Cousin 
Mark. 

It does not matter. You will learn much of the lat- 
ter’s character as our story progresses. Suffice it to say 
of him now that in the course of speeding time he made 
his way into his relatives’ confidence and affection. 

When a man has an uncle worth two millions of dol- 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


11 


lars, he is a fool if he fails to cultivate that uncle’s ac- 
quaintance and good-will. 

Mark did not fail. He entered the open citadel of 
the old man’s heart with a rush, and captured the strong- 
hold almost without a struggle. 

Mr. Candor needed a confidant and adviser. He 
could not turn to the beloved product of his own body. 
He could not impart his secrets, the mysteries of his 
bank accounts, the intricacies of his stock transactions 
to his dipsomaniac boy. 

And so when Mark presented himself to the million- 
aire as a substitute for his son, near to him as his hand, 
his heart, his blood, the disappointed father took the 
wanderer in, and believed in his professed love and 
fidelity. 

And now that John Candor stretched himself for the 
last time on his luxurious couch and began to look be- 
yond our earth, John, the son, was not by his side; John 
was not to be found; John was not at hand to hear the 
final appeal, the last prayer, the whispered farewell. 

John was missing. 

The other child, Anna, weeping and heart-broken, 
had been sent from the room to sob on the carpet of her 
bedchamber, while her dying father dealt with earthly 
matters for the last time. These disposed of, he prom- 
ised to recall the loving girl to his bedside and fall asleep 
on her bosom, wound close in her fond embrace. 

But God disposes. 

The victim of death was now alone in the grand old 
room with his nephew Mark. And thus he spoke, al- 
most borrowing breath from the other world, for this 
world’s seemed all but spent: 

“ I have much matter to dispose of, and in a few words, 
nephew, and quickly they must be spoken. Then bring 


t2 


KING alcohol: 


Anna to me, let me die looking into her loving eyes; 
to her care I confide the trust of my wandering boy’s 
soul.” 

Very kindly the old man whispered, though shaken 
with incessant pain. 

Yet, ere he began to speak of earthly treasures that 
rust, he chose the better part, and strove to make his 
footing sure in that abode where thieves do not break 
in and steal. 

Mark Candor listened to the solemn invocation, and 
for the moment relented. 

The clock ticked on the mantel. The cuckoo flut- 
tered out, and spoke the hour of midnight. 

A splash of broken coals formed a crater in the grate, 
and fell in decayed and dying, like the whispering fig- 
ure on the bed. 

“I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of 
heaven and earth,” etc. 

The simple prayer ceased, and the mellow call from 
St. Martin’s belfry proclaimed the birth of another 
day. 

“Mark,” said the sinking man, “bring me the ‘will’ 
from the cedar tray in the upper drawer.” 

Mark moved lightly across the room, and the next 
moment the document was in the old man’s hand. 

Two millions of dollars trembling in the clutch of a 
babe. Millions of dollars already invested in the spec- 
ulative thought of thrifty Mark Candor, for by the ex- 
ecutive power of the paper fluttering in the skeleton 
hand he was the heir of John Candor, and the helplevSS 
dipsomaniac — 

Disinherited ! 

So it read, such were its provisions; at least what 
follows is a fair abstract of the testament prepared by 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. I3 

the family lawyer two weeks before this, the night of 
death : 

“ I do hereby bequeath to my daughter, Anna Can- 
dor, one hundred thousand dollars, and my country seat 
at Newburgh. 

“ To Peter Latham, my butler, grown old in faithful 
service, ten thousand dollars.” 

Then followed bequests and legacies to friends and 
servants, whom Candor loved and who would love and 
weep for him, money or not. 

Next we have the vital part of the document; the 
heart, blood, soul of the literary structure : 

“ The remainder of my estates shall be held, in trust, 
by the executors named herein, for the term of two 
years. 

“ If at the expiration of that time, my son, John Can- 
dor, has abandoned strong drink, and has lived twelve 
consecutive months without drinking alcoholic liquors 
of any kind, all the property thus held in trust by my 
executors, Redmund and Jarvis, is to become by the 
terms of this will, his. 

“ But if at the expiration of two years he is still the 
slave of alcohol, and has not positively refrained from 
all intoxicants for the year preceding the expiration of 
the time of trust herein specified, then the whole of my 
remaining estates are to revert to my nephew, Mark 
Candor, and his heirs, forever.” 

Mark had known the terms of his uncle’s will, ever 
since it had been devised and drawn up. 

At the request of the dying man, he now read the 
paper aloud from beginning to end. 

Then there was a pause and silence. The sinking 
man scarcely broke the stillness of the night, as he said: 

“ Put that will in the fire !" 


14 


KING alcohol: 


Mark Candor stood like a man of ice and snow. Put 
two millions in the fire? 

His two viillions / 

He had been as sure of their possession as of the 
clothing he wore, as of the ring that encircled his 
finger. 

He knew that John Candor could as soon exist with- 
out air as live a year without alcohol. 

''Burn itr 

“Yes, nephew, I cannot disinherit my boy. I cannot 
go to my God to whom I have spoken in prayer, and 
leave behind me the possibility of an unjust act. 

“ I cannot leave behind me my irresponsible son, con- 
demned to a life of poverty. 

“ Burn it!” 

Mark was now on his feet, the “ will” clutched tightly 
behind his back. 

He looked down at the good old face, and marked the 
growing dimness of the eyes, the falling of the lip, the 
scant supply of breath. 

How soon will he die ? 

He must have expressed this thought to John Candor, 
for his eyes revealed his wish. 

“ Burn it quick ! Light it and bring it to me. Let 
me see it burn. ” 

Mark Candor did not stir. This was open defiance, 
total renunciation of long-expressed affection, complete 
annihilation of well-built confidence. 

“ Do you hear me, sir?” 

Candor’s voice was stronger. Mark wondered and 
gazed greedily at the gasping man, gazed as sin looks 
upon chastity, into the livid face. 

“ How soon will he die?” 

“ Obey me!” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


15 

This came with a gurgle and a gasp ; then a last 
mighty effort. 

Mark Candor staggered back as though a stiletto had 
been driven into his throat, and fell against the wall. 

Small wonder. 

Before him on the bed knelt the trembling giant, 
risen from the coffin, uplifted from the grave, his head 
erect, his eyes wide open, one hand and arm stretched 
toward him, the other pointing to the flames. 

“ Burn ! burn !** 

Mark Candor for a time lost all power of thought, all 
sense of power, all resistance. 

He was for the moment the spiritual and bodily slave 
of the kneeling figure on the bed, the abject serf of the 
index finger pointing to the white coals, a helpless im- 
becile in the hands of the dead. 

The grand old lion eyes still uttered their silent com- 
mand. 

Burn. 

The outstretched arm still pointed to the fire. 

Burn 

Mark Candor obeyed and moved toward the flaming 
grate. 

Step by step he crossed the room. He was alive, 
but temporarily suspended from all power of express- 
ing will or life either by word of refusal or positive 
resistance. 

His tongue was thick and dry in his mouth ; he tried 
to close his eyes, but failed ; they glared at the dead 
man’s lips. 

Burn. r 

Two millions, food for fire! two millions, snatched 
from him ! Millions already disposed of in thought and 
dream. 


i6 


KING alcohol: 


Over the coals that snapped, over the flames that 
leaped. 

The heat scorched his hand, the wax of the red seal 
melted and ran into the fire like a stream of blood. 

Two millions gone ! 

No! 

John Candor’s stiffening arm fell, the head relaxed 
its pose, and the body slowly shrank away, the inert 
mass reposing as the dead always lie. 

A woman’s quick step without, a woman’s hurried 
rap on the panel. The door thrown wide open; Anna 
Candor, clergyman, doctor, nurse, rush forward. 

“ Dead!” said the physician. 

“Dead!” from the girl, accompanied by a wail of 
heart’s sorrow. 

“ Dead!” from the white-faced nephew. 

“ Dead!” from the man of God. 

“ I am the resurrection and the life.” 

And standing in the doorway, helpless and irrespon- 
sive, the wretched dipsomaniac, who had sold his birth- 
right for a mess of pottage. 


CHAPTER III. 

“for better or for worse.” 

Two millions, the price of a man’s soul. 

Souls should not be placed in the market for sale like 
stocks. 

The theory of life should be to prepare for eternity, 
and the man who disposes of his spiritual possessions 
on earth is drawing largely in advance on his future 
claims. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 7 

Mark Candor killed his uncle. It was murder as foul 
as if he had battered in his skull or strangled him. 

The old gentleman would in all probability have 
died in a few hours, but he was entitled to his chance, 
and Mark Candor’s precipitation must be classed as a 
diabolical act. 

The only jury competent to try such cases at once 
condemned the murderer; the Judge of all at once pro- 
nounced sentence, and the expiation must follow in the 
established order of sequence. 

Mark sat quietly in a corner when the will was read 
and its astonishing provisions made public. 

Even the lawyer who was responsible for the legal 
accuracy of the document, and who already knew its 
contents, half choked over the reading, while others 
who loved the dead man’s memory, and still loved the 
diseased son, received the news with abrupt shocks of 
feeling as clause after clause was read and explained. 

Young John Candor was a very different-looking 
man, as he sat listening to his practical disinheritance, 
than he appeared two weeks before, leering stupidly at 
the remains of the father he loved. 

He had suffered the inevitable penalty pronounced 
against the man who goes on a protracted spree. 

He had passed through the agony of nervous pulsa- 
tion, each throb tearing body and soul like explosions 
of dynamite. 

He had not turned over in his bed for forty-eight 
hours^ but lay with his eyes fixed on a fracture in the 
ceiling, every moment a thousand years of hell. 

The tortures of these men exceed in intensity all 
physical misery known to experience and investiga- 
tion. 

There is no earthly agony that can compare to the 
2 


L 


t8 


KING alcohol: 


unutterable and indescribable physical and mental 
slaughter that follows the immoderate use of alcohol. 

I can only liken this peculiar condition to that of a 
soul wrought to frenzy by unnatural means, imprisoned 
in a dead body. 

Every power of thought is strengthened and quick- 
ened a thousand-fold. Observation, memory, imagina- 
tion, introspection, all expressing their restless vitality 
with ceaseless persistence and exaggerating the vic- 
tim’s awful state, with a multiplication of horrors none 
the less terrible because delusive. 

This is alcoholic reactive effect. Thus John Candor, 
our hero, a drunken hero, agonized for three days. 

Anna, ministering angel, suffered with her brother, 
groaning at her inability to relieve him. 

Alas! sympathy does not heal. Tender nursing can- 
not cure a mind diseased. 

So John endured alone, and then swallowed beef tea, 
and milk and seltzer, his stomach replying to such sa- 
lutes by saying that soon he might send down “ a soft 
boiled egg” and later on “a small tenderloin.” 

Next came thoughts of, and desire for, cleanliness. 
This train of meditation culminated in a razor and bath- 
tub. 

Finally, the morning paper and a burst of hysterical 
tears over the details of a railroad slaughter, a groan 
for the house-painter who fell from a scaffold, and down- 
right sobs for the taking off of an urchin by drowning. 

The sympathies of the dipsomaniac, struggling back 
to normal conditions of mind and body, are raw ; drop 
your handkerchief on a worm, and he will weep. 

Bread and butter corrects all this. Rare roast beef 
hardens the heart and enables the convalescent to sleep 
without nervous, spasmodic prayers. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


19 


John Candor the restored looked well, graced as he 
was with renewed physical honors. A sorry botch of 
a tailor who could not fit and tastefully adorn this splen- 
did animal. 

As we see him to-day, so his father was twenty years 
ago, massive, shapely, correct. 

A front like Jove, crisp black curls, and a mustache 
like the crow’s wing; weight two hundred; height six 
feet ; agile as a panther. 

Moreover, John was well dressed; an excellent habit 
in men’s lives. 

Good clothes make common men kings; kings they 
make gods. The dull man who habitually wears good 
garments is nearer success than the genius who is 
threadbare. 

John would have done credit to a suit of armor; 
dressed for the arena, he would have excited the plau- 
dits of bloodthirsty Romans. 

To-day, at the reading, he looks every inch a man ; in 
a tweed suit. A great, big, magnetic, graceful gentle- 
man. Loved by men, and often worshipped by women. 

Despised by many f 

To-day he stands “ the glass of fashion, the mould of 
form, the observed of all observers;” next week he may 
be again in the alcoholic sewer, and, God pUy him^ he can- 
not help it. 

The sceptic turns with disgust from my statement. 

Such declarations are innovations, and consequently 
unworthy of credit. 

You offend the graybeards when you overthrow a 
tradition. 

Destroy the conventional, and you are a vandal. 

Steam applied to locomotion was once pronounced 
“ diabolical.” 


20 


KING alcohol: 


Two hundred years ago, Edison would have been 
burned at the stake for witchcraft, for his mad electric 
pranks. 

We have the children of these old-time cranks among 
us to-day. 

And to-day progressive science throws its search 
light into some dark corners, and these same erudite 
“ children” are shocked and outraged. 

The industrious wizard of the chemical laboratory dis- 
covers that the crime of alcoholism is not a crime at all, 
but a disease, sharp and deadly as the knife of the 
assassin. 

This beneficent investigator defines alcoholism as “ a 
desperate malady” and suggests an antidote. 

His unsupported assertion is at first received with 
silent contempt. At the start he meets with little op- 
position. He has not yet proved himself worthy of the 
kicks of scepticism. His theory is merely an infant, 
that will sicken and die, go out like a bursting bubble. 

But the baby grows. The proclaimed infant thrives. 
The bubble does not burst, and one hundred thousand 
dipsomaniacs abandoned by despairing friends and help- 
less physicians are restored to life. 

The magician waves his wand, the evil spirit is ex- 
orcised, the alcoholic devil cast out from his despotic- 
rule. 

At once we hear the howl of the sceptic, the bigot, 
and the non -participant. A man has dared to startle 
the world with his philanthropic thunder. 

As a progressionist he is a nuisance, and must be 
suppressed. 

The sceptic, slighted and ignored, snarls out his trite 
argument, struts his hour upon the stage, and then 
evaporates. 


13 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 21 

The physician, frightened at the progress of a cause 
which he has not helped to advance, with which he is 
not identified, and from the success of which he is not 
to benefit, denounces the “ discoverer” and his theory, 
and magnificently wraps himself in the theatric armor 
of “professional ethics.” 

The saloon-keeper, who has laughed at sumptuary 
laws, chuckled at “no license,” ridiculed “cold-water 
associations,” “temperance crusaders, ” and ranting lec- 
turers, now bristles with rage, for the magnetic coin of 
the “ one hundred thousand saved” no longer jingles 
on the marble counter of his poison shop. 

To return to our story. The company assembled to 
hear the reading of the will consisted of the follow- 
ing: John and Anna Candor, son and daughter of 
the deceased; Mark Candor, his nephew; James Red- 
mund, executor and trustee, and William Jarvis, the 
same. 

Lawyer Sharp crossed the door-mat exactly at eleven 
A.M., compared his watch with the timepiece on the 
mantel, pronounced the clock right, and seated himself 
at a table. 

Then he turned to the company and remarked : 

“ I am waiting for Miss Nora Livingston.” 

The two executors said “Ah!” simultaneously, and 
crossed their legs together, as if by preconcerted ar- 
rangement and after frequent rehearsals. 

Anna Candor brightened, and her sweet, sad face 
clear^^d up in smiles. 

“ I am glad you need Nora,” she said. 

“Yes!” answered Sharp, “she is named in the will 
for a small amount.” 

John and Mark were visibly affected by the mention 
of this girl’s name. 


22 


KING alcohol: 


Mark walked to the window and looked out at the 
bricks. • 

John colored slightly above his average ruddiness, 
and grew red as a peony when he met Anna’s kind eye, 
and saw her smile. 

Nora entered the room, bringing with her color, 
freshness, bloom, grace, vitality; a well-built young 
giantess, yet a girl all over, in spite of her inches and 
the vigor of her stride. 

Yes, a girl, and a novelty. A frank, fearless creature ; 
a “ stick by my friend to the last ” sort of woman. 

She expressed the truth of her character by the dash 
of her smile, the candid beam of her eyes, the warmth 
of her hand-clasp. 

She was the incarnation of sincerity, the embodiment 
of feminine fidelity. She was a reality. He who wins 
her will not clasp a shadow. Her character was made 
to wear. It will not change with her wedding-dress. 

An unaffected American woman, well-bred, perfect 
in her deportment. 

When Mark turned and bowed to Nora, he was sure 
that she would consent to share with him the two mill- 
ions of cash he was preparing to steal. His salutation 
showed that he felt the importance of his position. 

John simply smiled; handsome brute, was there ever 
such a smile? 

Nora shook hands with the young men impartially, 
and then sat by Anna. 

The Rev. Arthur Rose of St. Martin’s entered the 
room, and Nora was sure that her friend’s hand flut- 
tered slightly in hers as the well-looking churchman 
appeared in the doorway. 

Rose was a consequence of Nassau Hall and the 
Theological Seminary at Princeton. 

/ 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 23 

While at college, study and athletics about equally 
divided his efforts. 

Then he threw away his boxing-gloves and dumb- 
bells and settled down to absorb theology. 

He was now in charge of St. Martin’s and was Anna’s 
pastor. Perhaps that is why the girl flushed so prettily 
when he entered the room. 

The “ will” was read by Lawyer Sharp, who disposed 
of the minor legacies in an off-hand manner as though 
dropping small coin into a contribution box ; but whose 
manner changed as he threw ten thousand dollars into 
Nora’s lap, and informed Anna that she was a hundred- 
thousand-dollar girl, with a handsome residence on the 
Hudson. 

Then the voice of the reader grew harsh and vibrat- 
ing, as if he were striving to convey to his readers the 
idea that he was not sorry for the handsome young 
gladiator who sat listening to his practical disinheri- 
tance. 

The millions could only be his by the occurrence of 
the impossible. 

The two executors did not look at the matter in this 
light, however, and, after congratulating the young 
ladies on their good fortune, took Candor in hand and 
“hailed him chief.” 

Mark watched this performance without a break of 
expression apparent on his face. He did not think it 
necessary to play the hypocrite, he was so sure ; there- 
fore he assumed a negative attitude and expressed his 
wisdom by his silence. 

Yes, Mark’s countenance denoted calm indifference; 
but behind that well-studied front was a brain seething 
with quick thought, forming plans, overthrowing com- 
plications. 


24 


KING alcohol: 


His uncle’s death; the will, the positive future; ac- 
cession to wealth — these incidents were all strung to- 
gether like precious stones on a silver wire ; their ar- 
rangement was perfect. 

Yet, without one jewel more his happiness would be 
incomplete. Lacking this, he was a poor man. 

The love of Nora Livingston ! Could she be persuaded 
to accept the stolen millions, and become an innocent 
partner in his crime? 

Would she consent to fasten the diamond coil about 
her white throat ? — and pay him with herself 1 

Nora had already refused him, six months ago, be- 
fore his lucky “ find.” 

Now all was changed. Had she the soul to place her 
matchless womanhood on the auction block, and step 
down the property of the highest bidder? 

Nora had been engaged to John. Yet she dismissed 
him in disgust, because he staggered into her presence 
one night with the mark of the “ wine god” on his face. 

Yes; dismissed him, sent him reeling away, and bade 
him forfeit the paradise that had been his. 

Yes; ordered John and his two millions and her 
grand love for him into the street. 

To-day Mark had the millions in prospective; John 
was an outcast. What would this strange girl do now? 

Mark trembled with anticipation as he caught Nora’s 
magnificent head with his half-closed eyes, and let 
them fall slowly to her feet. 

Luscious banquet! garden of delight! glowing with 
golden fruit. 

Was it for sale ? 

Anna nestled closely to her beautiful companion. 
The palpitating houri responded to the caress and the 
two became a unit. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 25 

The clergyman, thirsty with sexual passion, drank in 
Anna for her sweetness alone, and forgot her hundred 
thousand dollars. 

The lawyer peeled an orange. The trustees chatted 
in whispers. There was a tiresome wait of a minute 
or two. All knew it was but an intermission short as 
the snap of your thumb. All knew that the disinherited 
was preparing to speak. The vacation of a minute 
seemed an hour to these eager ones. 

They waited with throbbing pulses. All knew that 
there was another scene to play, another climax to be 
reached. 

John got up from his chair, and stood before them 
like a mountain pine. 

Atlas, holding up the globe. Graceful Mercury 
bathing in rosy clouds. The brawn of Hercules, 
moulded with Apollo’s divine beauty. 

First in college honors, first in the senior shell, 
first in the friendly spar, first in the hearts of his 
fellows. 

There he stands, radiant as the sun, the wretch who 
lately crawled from the gutter, and who will return to 
the gutter again. 

And stupid ignorance proclaims that he should save 
himself by the exercise of will. 

Then why does not this brainy giant save himself if 
he can? Surely he cannot covet the companionship of 
horrors to"' awful for description. 

My sceptical friend, you have not an inch of ground 
to stand on. 

Sit down ! 

Dr. Fudge, please prescribe for this man. Cannot 
you, erudite theorist, save him from his fate? 

No! You are not able to locate the eruptive plague. 


26 


KING alcohol: 


Here stands a man inoculated with an awful disease, 
and your formulas, your compounds, your tinctures are 
as water. 

Loving ones, cannot you wind your arms about his 
throat, and hold him with love’s fetters? 

No! He melts in your grasp like a flake of snow. 
You cannot heal dipsomania with a kiss. 

Men and women organize, prepare pledges, pray and 
persuade. 

The wretched man signs the periodical pledge, listens 
to the prayers, confesses himself persuaded — 

calmly drinks again from the first glass ojfered! 

Will not God save this man? 

Yes! 

God bids his servant, “ Science,” dig in the ground 
and bring forth roots and minerals, and prepare in se- 
cret a healing broth. 

And the servant heard the word of God ; and lo ! the 
earth gave forth strange things, and he ground them in 
his mill, and gave them to the stricken men who came 
to him, saying unto them, “ Thy wish hath made thee 
whole; go thy way in peace.” 

And all those who had this same faith and desired 
ical salvation and mental restoration were healed from 
the hour of thein coming. But others who doubted, and 
listened to the advice of slander, and who heeded the 
voice of the heathen, and hearkened to the cry of the ig- 
norant man, died in their alcoholic tracks, and were 
buried in the City of Degradation. 

John Candor, like all dipsomaniacs, knew everything 
about alcohol, except the way to down it. 

He had tried all known remedies and failed in dark- 
ness. 

He had yet to learn of ” the light that never fails.'* 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


27 


As he stood before his sister, the sister he loved, and 
the other woman he worshipped, the poor fellow be- 
lieved himself doomed. 

John knew that he would drink again. He had cast 
aside his one hope of salvation ; so he believed. 

Nora Livingston, by the power of het mighty will, 
her matchless charms, her womanly love, might have 
saved him ; so he believed. 

John had turned down his last chance; so he believed. 

“ My father was right, my friends ; I am not a re- 
sponsible being — I am a leper, an outcast, a pariah ! 

“ The love I bear to you prompts me to say, that in 
hoping for my redemption you are merely prolonging 
suspense. 

“ One year ago I threw away my last chance. She 
who might have been my saviour, in her just anger, 
turned from me and closed the gates of heaven against 
me. 

Nora , with heaving bosom and flashing eyes, sprang 
to her feet : 

“ Those gates are open to you again. ** 

Mark Candor for a moment fought back his words ; 
then they burst forth like the report of musketry. 

“What do you mean?” he cried. 

“I mean that John Candor, stricken with disease 
and deprived of his inheritance, shall be my husband 
and I will be his wife, for good or evil, for better or for 
worse, through life, even unto death.” 

John could not reply. His heart was bursting with 
rapture. But these two fair mortals looked into each 
other’s eyes, and Mark Candor looked on both. And 
yonder is little Anna crying for joy on the coat-sleeve 
of the Reverend Arthur Rose of St. Martin’s. 


28 


KING alcohol: 


CHAPTER IV. 

“we will take his word.” 

Trustees Redmund and Jarvis were friends of fort}’’ 
years’ standing, and were tolerably well acquainted 
with each other’s mannerisms and eccentricities. 

Both had retired from business after having accumu- 
lated a fortune, and as they passed through life’s jour- 
ney the men took no care for the morrow, knowing that 
their money was well invested, and that there was 
plenty of it. 

Both loved the dead millionaire, both mourned his 
loss and respected his memory. 

To-night we find them in the cozy study of little 
Jarvis. 

Jarvis was listening quietly to his companion, who 
stood by the fire balancing a glass of potent refreshment 
in his hand. 

“Do you think, Jarvis, you could keep from it for a 
year if some one should offer you two millions?” 

“ I do not know,” replied Jarvis; “ I should not want 
to.” 

Then the two old fellows nodded to each other over 
their little glasses of false excitement; then both swal- 
lowed together, and made wry faces in concert, dashing 
their outraged palates with cold water just in time to 
prevent strangulation. 

“Redmund,” began Jarvis, after all danger of suffo- 
cation had departed, “ I am glad Candor stipulated as 
he did regarding John.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


29 


“Why so?" gasped Redmund, who was still working 
hard for breath. 

“ Because the young man will be forced into reforma- 
tion. Not the most worthy motive, to be sure, but when 
millions are involved we must not question too closely 
as to a man’s motives," replied Jarvis. ' 

“ Are you sure that he will reform?" 

“Why, you do not suppose that he would be fool 
enough to drink, under the circumstances ?" 

“ The two millions would not keep him from alcohol," 
grunted Redmund. 

“ No? Well, I admire his disregard for money," said 
Jarvis. 

“ Could you stop breathing for a year?” shouted Red- 
mund. 

“ I am liable to stop at any moment, my dear Red- 
mund." 

“ Exactly ; and young Candor will cease drinking 
only when forced to face the same issue.” 

“You believe these men to be helpless, then?" 

“ Helpless !" cried Redmund. “ They are worse than 
helpless, they are actively armed against themselves; 
they put in the knife and turn it around with as much 
deliberation as you use your razor. 

“ These poor fellows know that one glass will bring 
them to the whipping-post — that one drink means an 
orgie, that one drink is but an appetizer for the five 
gallons to follow." 

“Do they fight against this influence?" timidly in- 
quired Jarvis. 

“Do they fight against it? My God, yes! desper- 
ately! But after repeated failures they say, ‘What’s 
the use? If I don’t drink to-night, I shall to-morrow, 
or next week. ’ 


30 


KING alcohol: 


“Fight? Yes! I knew a poor wretch who used to 
stretch himself on the floor and clutch the carpet, dur- 
ing his agonizing appeals for mercy. 

“ From this dipsomaniac I heard the only real prayer 
of my life. That poor creature’s supplication to God to 
remove his craving for alcohol was a piteous exhibition 
of helpless despair. 

“ I once saw a fellow jammed in between two wrecked 
Pullman cars, with the flames all around him. That 
man was pleading for relief, I tell you ; but his prayer 
was a farce-comedy, compared to the appeal of my un- 
happy friend on the floor. 

I saw him the following day, leaning against a bar- 
ber’s pole, and his little girl in her sweet pretty way 
was trying to entice him home. 

“Well, he struck the child in the face, and kicked 
her when she fell. 

“ This man knew the effect of strong drink on his 
brain, and that is why he prayed for death when he felt 
the approach of his periodical disaster. 

“ He was a quiet gentleman and an affectionate 
father when sober. He knew what rum did for him.” 

“Why didn’t he cut his throat?” whispered Jarvis. 

“He did,” answered Redmund. 

“Oh, dear!” cried little Jarvis, “ poor fellow. ” 

“ It seems to be about all that is left for these un- 
happy ones,” groaned big Redmund. 

“ Another of this class was summoned home one day 
to the bedside of his only child, a fine lad of ten years. 

“ He was dotingly fond of the youngster, who had just 
been struck by an electric car. 

“ The mother was on the sofa in hysterics and the 
room full of useless people who shouted alternately for 
physicians and police. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 3I 

“ The nearest doctor lived several blocks away, and 
the maddened father started on a dead run for the office. 

“ Midwa)^ was the saloon where he usually began his 
spree. 

“And into that saloon he turned and got drunk.” 

“ But the child,” whimpered Jarvis. 

“ What has the child got to do with the sequel? I am 
reading you an object-lesson; don’t interrupt! 

“ That father would have stretched himself on live 
coals and said he liked them, to save his boy from an 
hour’s pain. He cared more for the rosy-cheeked ur- 
chin than Candor does for the millions at stake ; so be 
perfectly sure that the fear of pecuniary loss will not 
keep alcohol out of our friend’s system.” 

“Terrible, terrible!” murmured Jarvis. 

“Why, you dear old jay. Candor is the sickest man 
in New York, he is diseased from head to heel; and the 
most distressing part of the calamity is, we have no 
antidote that will overthrow the poison.” 

“Two millions of dollars for a glass of champagne,” 
said Jarvis mournfully. 

“Yes, and he will count the liquor cheap at that, 
when the desire comes to him.” 

“Then the sum of your belief is that poor John will 
forfeit this money, and drink himself to death,” said 
Jarvis with tears in his eyes. 

“ I am not sentencing any man to such a fate ; besides, 
our boy has still a fighting chance.” 

“Good gracious, what is it?” said Jarvis, rising. 
“Come, do say something pleasant before you go.” 

“ Well, there is a bare possibility that Miss Living- 
ston may get under him and lift him out ; she has a 
strong pull on the lad, and women occasionally gain 
the upper hand in a fight to the finish.” 


32 


KING alcohol: 


“True, you are a married man yourself, Redmund,” 
said the quaint Jarvis. 

“ Don’t be disagreeable, sir. This is a question on 
which we old beaux must be in perfect accord. We 
need harmony. Miss Livingston is a front line 
hustler. ” 

“ She is a front line hustler,” said Jarvis. “ I have not 
the most remote idea what that is, but for the sake of 
harmony she is, as you say, ‘a hustler.’ ” 

“And now tell me this,” continued the little man; 
“how are we to know whether John Candor complies 
with the terms of the ‘will’ or not? He may drink and 
we know nothing of such a performance. I am sure I 
do not intend to sleep with the young giant, or watch 
him while he is awake.” 

Both men poured themselves a final drink, “ a night- 
cap,” and then stood in silence. 

“I tell you what we will do,” answered Redmund, 
clutching his glass, and covering three fingers of “ Ante 
Deluvian” whiskey. 

“What will we do?” inquired Jarvis eagerly. 

“We will take John Candor’s word.” 

“Good heavens, Redmund!” 

“ That’s right, his word. If, at the expiration of two 
years, he comes to us and says that for one year he has 
not tasted liquor, would you hesitate to believe him?” 

The little bald-headed man deposited his glass on 
the table, and held out his hand to his companion: 

“Yes, dear Redmund, you are right. We will take 
John Candor's word. ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


33 


CHAPTER V. 

FROM FATHER TO SON. 

Three months after date of last chapter, and John 
Candor’s lips had not touched the scalding poison pro- 
hibited by the sumptuary provisions of the remarkable 
will. 

Please do not tire of this legal parchment so often 
spoken of in these pages, for the tough bit of paper 
must go with us to the end. 

One evening our fighting hero leaped up the steps of 
Richard Livingston’s house on Seventy-first Street, 
jerked the bell as if pulling a health-lift, and entered 
Nora’s magnetic presence. 

Some young women require winding up like a watch. 
They do everything mechanically, by rule. 

But Nora was not a machine. She was a blithe- 
hearted, unaffected girl whose instincts were correct, and 
when she entered the opened avenue of her lover’s ex- 
tended arms she did so without coyness or hesitation. 

Let it be recorded here that John responded with 
equal frankness. 

The look this young woman threw over his face made 
Candor glow like a brazier of hot coals and tingle like 
an electric battery. 

There was an admirable understanding between the 
twain. 

“Are you happy, Nora?” 

John said this very tenderly and softly; these big 
fellows can purr and coo, when the spirit moves them. 


34 


KING alcohol: 


“ Do I look unhappy?” asked the girl with a smile 
like sunrise. 

“You look very beautiful, my velvet rose, grown in 
Paradise and transplanted to earth for my special ben- 
efit.” 

A girl can stand a great deal of this kind of talk, and 
enjoy it with the color deepening on her cheek at every 
word. 

They pretend to laugh it away. The pretty crea- 
tures want to cry with joy. Women and tears are 
synonymous. 

Nora in her own business-like way took John’s face 
between her hands, kissed his lips, and put him in a 
seat. 

Then she spoke: 

“How glad I am to stand here, John, and be almost 
sure of you. A short period of probation, and then 
hope will give birth to certainty. You begin to be sure 
of yourself — don’t you? 

The man paused before replying. Why did he hesi- 
tate to reply to this appeal with a hearty affirmation? 

At last he answered her. “ I wish to avoid too much 
confidence in myself; I want to doubt; to fear; anxiety 
is a sentinel I dare not dismiss. It warns and protects. ” 

“ I will be your sentinel,” said this mortal angel, plac- 
ing her hand on the loved one’s head as if in blessing. 

For a moment the strong man’s frame was shaken 
with a spasm of mental agony. 

He concealed this from her; but he could not shut 
back the livid growth that turned the ruddy glow on 
his face to ashes. Nora threw her arms about him — a 
protective power against some unknown foe. 

“Tell me all, John!” she cried. 
dared not ! 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 35 

How could he turn the bright hope of her heart to 
black despair? 

Why could he not suffer alone? Why could he not 
endure alone the agony stealing upon him? 

He came to her, brave, hopeful, strong. 

Three months of total abstinence! He could have 
sworn that he was free from the power of his destroyer. 

He had passed over his last periodical era, and had 
not been assaulted. 

When he gathered Nora in his arms this night, pray- 
ers of gratitude trembled on his lips and found an an- 
swering cry in her soul. 

Then, in the twinkling of an eye, came to him the 
terrible doubt, the infinitesimal fragment of the old- 
time despair. 

He knew from experience that the return of the 
deadly curse was always foretold by symptoms that 
never lied. 

He knew that now in the hour of his strength and re- 
joicing the monster was approaching. 

The double-toothed dragoon before the stench of 
whose nostrils armies of men have fallen and hosts of 
women have wept. 

And to come at such an hour when charmed into 
heavenly happiness by the divine sweetness of the fair, 
the chaste, the unexpressive She ! 

To know that she must witness the beginning of his 
degradation. To know that with her pure caresses 
must come the foul beast and his retinue of crawling 
followers. 

He tried to speak calmly and comfort her. 

Both suffered as though bound to the stake and 
surrounded by flames. Yet^ God be praised^ they suffered 
together. 


36 


KING alcohol: 


She read the truth in his face, the approach of the 
desolating fiend whose incursions they had been guard- 
ing against. 

In her mortal agony the girl cried out : “ Speak to me, 
for God’s sake speak!” 

Then she dragged the trembling man to his feet. 

“ It is not my fault,” he cried; “ I am guiltless.” 

Nora soothed him in her womanly way. 

“ Here is the proof!” He plunged his hand into his 
breast-pocket and, quivering with nervous haste, tore 
from it 

A written letter! 

“You must share my confidence, Nora. You must 
know that of which my father died in ignorance, dear 
old father.” 

“ This letter I found among his papers. It is from 
the physician who treated him secretly for the disease 
named on this page.” 

The paper shook in the poor fellow’s hand, as if in a 
fierce wind. 

“ Give it to me, John,” she whispered. 

“ Stop! 

“ Let me explain while my reason serves me. That 
will not be for long. 

“ Upon the discovery of this secret I hastened to our 
physician and told him that I knew all. 

“ Then his pale lips confessed the truth, and he told 
me that the disease my father suffered from came down 
to the son intensified in horror a thousand times.” 

“Speak out, John, speak or you will kill me!” Nora 
cried. 

His eyes were fixed and glassy, his lips were parted, 
and his teeth clenched. He held her away from him 
and broke the silence with a fierce whisper : 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


37 


“ When the father is a victim of epilepsy, the son is 
bom — 

“yi dipsomaniac r* 


CHAPTER VI. 

A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH. 

Anna Candor stood under the chandelier in her 
chamber, one white arm thrust upward; the hand about 
to turn off the gas. 

Anna was about to retire for the night. 

The girl had just arisen from her knees, a very thank- 
ful, happy maiden, and as she stood there in her snowy 
draperies, all smiles and blushes, an observing artist 
would have said : 

A very pretty picture. 

And now for sleep, the sleep of the just ; the soft, 
fluttering breath of the unsoiled dove, nestling in her 
white retirement. 

Holy dreams! Night’s sacred volumes, read in the 
dark. 

All these luxuries were Anna’s nightly dues, carefully 
collected. 

One little white foot rested on a black velvet stool ; 
the pose was charming, the subject chaste. 

The taper fingers clasped the instrument. In another 
moment darkness would have fallen on the breathing 
statue. 

Three quick., sharp knocks ! 

The girl paused ; then like a flash buried her arms in 
a huge wardrobe, and stood draped in fur from head to 
toe. 


38 


KING alcohol: 


Then she became conscious of having exhibited a 
charming female characteristic — cowardice. Her pre- 
caution was useless. 

The door of the sanctuary was locked. 

Then she laughed and spoke : 

“ What is it?” 

A man’s voice answered from the hall: 

“ Messenger has just left this letter, Miss Anna.” 

“ Put it under the door. ” 

A white envelope with enclosure glided into the room 
and lay at her feet. She was no longer alone. A let- 
ter is a visitor. 

Anna picked up the “caller,” and wondered as girls 
always do, and puzzled and pouted, turning it over, 
trying to guess the sender — at last opening it to read 
the signature of 

Nora Livingston. 

Oh ! the pity of it. 

Anna’s happy face clouded, tears came to the beau- 
tiful eyes, sobs shook her delicate frame as she read that 
her brother was again threatened with a fate 

Worse than death ! 


CHAPTER VII. 

A CHILD OF SIN. 

Mark Candor lived a correct life for thirty years and 
became a villain in as many seconds. 

The chances are that this man would have idled 
through life and gone feet first into the family vault, 
without exciting the ire or the curiosity of his fellows, 
had not his “uncle’s will” become a factor in his career. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 39 

And yet Mark must have been instinctively bad and 
ready for sin, or he would not have accepted moral deg- 
radation with such fervor. He did not gradually ap- 
proach iniquity, he leaped to meet it. 

The face of this man denoted truth. Physiognomy 
is a most unreliable knave. ^ 

He was a sleek, well-fed, well-groomed animal. He 
showed this in his looks. 

Since his uncle’s death, however, there was a change 
manifest. 

Thought and anxiety gave character to the old-time 
colorless exterior. 

As week followed week, and John Candor did not 
drink, he became serious, moody, reflective. 

If John Candor, the dipsomaniac, could endure a 
month without pollution, why not a year, two years, 
forever? 

He knew nothing of the disease itself, or of its wonder- 
ful inconsistencies. 

In his eyes the cousin was merely the object named 
by ignorance “a common drunkard,” a creature who, 
under strong restraining power, might successfully fight 
the enemy. 

To his surprise and anxiety, the restraining power 
appeared in the person of Nora Livingston. 

Now that three months had elapsed and John had re- 
mained steadfast, Mark began to lie awake nights; 
Mark began to accumulate wrinkles. 

The man who worries, feeds upon himself. Cease- 
less thought devours the body, and under this condition 
of mind men grow old rapidly, wear out, unravel. 

Mark Candor began to look with horror on his hand- 
some cousin. The man was positively growing away 
from him. He began to pity himself. 


40 


KING alcohol: 


Thrown over by the woman he loved, and his success- 
ful rival preparing to rob him of his inheritance. 

He had contemplated so calmly the possession of John 
Candor’s millions, that he now felt a sense of injury at 
the successful struggle of the rightful heir to hold his 
own. 

By hook or crook, John must return to his cups. He 
must be brought back to the slaughter-pen, and butch- 
ered in cold blood. 

Mark still retained his rooms in the family mansion. 

Anna thought he might have found a plausible excuse 
for retiring, and that, under the circumstances, it would 
not have evinced an excess of delicacy on his part had 
he absented himself from the premises until he was 
acknowledged their lawful owner. 

But Mark thought otherwise. He preferred remain- 
ing on the ground. To abandon his “ point of obser- 
vation” would be an error; so he stuck closely to his 
cozy quarters and watched. 

On the night the “ messenger” brought the note from 
Nora Livingston to Anna Candor, Mark was at his club. 

While there he played a game of whist, and drank a 
glass of brandy and soda ; then having assured himself 
by referring to his watch that it was ten o’clock he left 
the place and moved slowly homeward, his eyes on the 
pavement, his chin on his shirt-bosom. 

As he ascended the steps of the house on Fifty-second 
Street, the tired boy with Nora’s letter was about to 
pull the bell. 

Mark took the note, signed for it, gave the lad a coin, 
and entered the house with his latch-key, just as the 
boy ran around the corner. 

He went up to his room, turned up the gas, shut the 
door, locked it, and sat down with the letter before him. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 4I 

How well he knew those graceful flourishes, the 
clear, womanly handwriting. 

An intense desire consumed him ; a desire to master 
the contents of the enclosed paper. 

Why did Nora find it necessary to write to Anna at 
such an hour? 

He scented trouble. His active mind evolved a crit- 
ical situation, possibly a catastrophe. 

Nora Livingston and Anna Candor were bound to- 
gether by a tie of mutual sympathy ; united by one in- 
tense passion, a mutual desire : 

The salvation of John Candor ! 

Mark knew this, and the knowledge was wormwood. 

Bitter the cup he had prepared for his own lips. His 
path was paved with ragged flint ; already his feet left 
bloody tracks on the way. 

He moistened the mucilage that fastened the envel- 
ope, and opened it. 

A very delicate stab his conscience received as he 
committed this offence against decency and manli- 
ness. 

The man with the sin of murder on his soul will read- 
ily accept the responsibility of lesser crimes. 

And so Mark Candor possessed himself of the follow- 
ing information : 

“ In great haste, dear Anna, I write to tell you that 
our unhappiness is again at hand. John has been with 
me for several hours. Hand in hand we have walked 
through the labyrinth of black mystery, for mystery it is 
to us all. 

“ Can you think of our idolized hero kneeling at my 
feet and covering my hands with his tears? 

“Again the irresistible appetite is upon him. It 


42 


KING alcohol: 


came in the hour of our security, came when the earth 
was brightest, heaven most near. 

“John has left me to take a quick walk, one of his 
‘spins.’ He will then return home. He is strong and 
determined to fight. 

“ Let us try and pull him back from the awful pit. 

“ Above all things^ keep alcohol out of his sight. He will 
remain in his room for a few days, so as to be away 
from the temptation. In that seclusion he will fight 
out his battle. 

“ I will see you early in the morning. “ Nora.” 

The wondering man read this through twice, and then 
sat as if in a trance, his eyes closed, his breath almost 
suspended. 

This was the pause that precedes action. So the tiger 
pauses before he springs, the rattlesnake before he 
strikes. 

Then suddenly rising, he moistened the adhesive 
gum, and closed the letter. 

He rang his bell, and a servant answered the call. 

The tried and trusted butler of the dead millionaire. 

The man stood in the darkened hall, and did not offer 
to enter the room. 

Mark attempted a cheerful tone of voice, and said : 

“ I did not expect you to answer the bell, Latham.” 

“ I saw fit to do so, sir,” answered the old retainer. 

“Where are the women servants?” 

“ Probably asleep, in bed certainly, sir.” 

“ Has Miss Candor retired?” 

“Probably, sir.” 

“ I found a messenger on the front steps just now 
from whom I took this letter for your young lady; I 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 43 

'Wish you would knock at her door and ask if she will 
be good enough to receive it. ” 

Latham did not stir nor speak. 

“Well?” inquired Mark. 

“I was wondering, sir, how you could have taken 
the letter from the messenger ‘just now,’ when for the 
last half you have been in your room.” 

Mark involuntarily clutched the paper. “ I see that 
you have your eyes open, if the other servants have 
closed theirs in blissful slumber,” said Mark. 

“Yes, sir.” 

“ When I said ''just now, ’ worthy Latham, I did not 
look at my watch, and calculate the lapse of time that 
has taken place since the transfer of the feminine 
epistle.” 

“ May I ask, sir, how you know it is a ‘feminine 
epistle’?” 

Mark made a mental calculation as to the cost of an 
open assault upon the impassive speaker. 

He did not assault, and answered with a smile : 

“ Because a woman’s delicate fingers evidently wrote 
the address. Now you must excuse me from further 
explanations, and if possible deliver the letter at once. ” 

He crossed the threshold, and gave up the missive to 
Latham. 

“Will you oblige me at once?” 

“ I will knock at Miss Candor’s door, if her light is 
still burning. If not, I will hand it to her in the morn- 
ing.” 

“Very well. Has Mr. Candor come in yet?” 

“ Not yet, sir.” 

“ Thank you ; good-night. ” 

Latham did not reply. 


44 


KING alcohol: 


Mark turned and entered the room. 

“ Good-night, Latham. ” 

No answer. 

He flashed about with both hands clinched. 
Damn you, sir!” 

He spoke to the air: Latham had disappeared. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

HIS LIGHT FAILS. 

Hope, the anchor of men’s souls, good and bad alike, 
began to revive in Mark Candor’s breast. 

He had watched his cousin like a detective for the 
last three months. 

He saw with terror that John not only positivel)’’ re- 
frained from alcohol, but that he did so without appar- 
ent effort. 

There seemed to be no emphatic struggle, no des- 
perate fight. He went about each day’s pleasures, each 
day’s work, with a zest and abandon that denoted his 
keen appreciation of the new life, life without unnatu- 
ral stimulation. 

Mark began to despair, and tortured himself into a 
frame of mind that savored of ultimate madness. 

To-night there came to him a relief so sweet, so 
grateful, so satisfying, that he could have waved his 
hands aloft and shouted for joy. 

Blessed news ! The strong man was weakening, his 
light was going out. Now the treasure would be secure 
from the thieves who were plotting to despoil him. 

Mark was by no means a hard drinker; but now 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


45 


there came to him, with this new joy, a desire to revel, 
to pour down wine, and view his future through alco- 
holic vapors. 

He lit a cigar, and sprang to a closet where he kept 
a supply of liquors. 

He first drew forth a bottle of sealed brandy, and 
read the epitaph on the label. 

“Brandy!” write the word on the drunkard’s tomb- 
stone. 

“No!” he cried. “Brandy for the poor devil who 
cannot buy the costly product of the vine.” 

Champagne for the millionaire! 

Then from a case of wine in the closet he drew forth 
a gold-headed siren, stamped Pommery ! 

He placed the wicked girl on the table, and inserted 
a corkscrew in her brain. 

Why did he pause, why remove his clutch from the 
instrument and fold his hands behind him? 

Mark Candor stood for five minutes without a per- 
ceptive respiration. 

He could not have been more absolutely inactive, 
nailed down in his coffin. 

At last the pale face flushed, the eyes glistened, and 
the set mouth curved in a smile. 

Satan' s counterfeit ! 

Both hands flew toward the table; with one he 
grasped the bottle of brandy, the other clutched the 
wine. 

Then he uttered a truism : 

“ Fools drink!” 

With his burden of corked-up sin, he glided to the 
door and opened it. 

He listened. 

All was as silent as a dead man’s heart. Cautiously 


46 


KING alcohol:* 


he made his way along the hall, and paused before a 
half-opened door. 

The door of John Candor’s room. 

The interior of this apartment might have been a 
tomb, so dark and gloomy it lay before him. 

Mark entered, and moved straight forward from the 
door, until stopped by a collision with a marble table. 

He knew the location of every article of furniture in 
the room. He placed the two bottles on the slab, as- 
sured himself that they rested securely, and then left 
the room, closing the door behind him. 

Back to his own chamber he moved cautiously, the 
plump carpet smothering his tread. 

Then he closed his door to a crack, and stood beside 
the opening. 

Waiting ! damned assassin ! 

Fifteen minutes passed, half an hour, waiting pa- 
tiently for a sound he longed to hear. 

It came at last. 

Click! click! click! 

A latch-key, and a man. The door opened, the man 
and key came in together. 

John Candor was the man. He moved to the foot of 
the stairs, as if expecting an occurrence of note. 

From the lower regions blundered a sleepy man who 
came to John. 

“ Is it you, Mr. John?” 

“Yes, Latham; I am late to-night ; why did you sit 
up for me?” 

“I never go to bed, Mr. John, while you are away 
from the house.” 

“ Suppose I should not return at all, old friend?” 

“ I would come and seek you. ” 

John extended his hand, the other grasped it eagerly. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


47 


“ You are very good to me, Latham.” 

“ I wish I could be of real good to you, sir.” 

“I know it, old friend. Good-night!” said Candor. 

“ God bless you, Mr. John! Good-night.” 

And the old man’s blessing followed him up the dark 
stairs and into his room, and the benediction seemed to 
bring to the weary man some portion of that “ peace 
which passeth all understanding.” 

The most mediocre of men finds one part in life’s 
drama exactly suited to his incapacity. 

Mark found in villany a successful role. He did 
not shudder as his helpless cousin passed him on his 
way to destruction. 

The intended victim closed his door, lit the gas, then 
sank into a chair, tired and wet with the sweat of toil. 

He had walked and run twenty miles, returning 
drenched with perspiration. 

Since leaving Nora, he had been moving with ner- 
vous haste ; on, on, striving to change the topic of his 
thought ; giving forth but one cry — 

'^Alcohol!" 

He crossed the ferry, and sped along the Newark road. 

He tried to outrun the yelling fiend ; leaped a fence, 
dashed through a pasture-field, awaking the sleeping 
cows, stumbling over rocks, the nimble-footed tiger 
ever at his elbow — 

Alcohol r 

He breasted “Snake Mountain” like a locomotive, 
and reached a height from which, in the moonlight, he 
could look over land and sea. It was painted on the 
soil ; it shimmered on the waves— 

Alcohol.” 

He brought it back with him, this foul malaria from 
the bottomless pit. 


48 


KING alcohol: 


On his way he met a brother unfortunate ; a sick man 
like himself, clutched and clubbed by a policeman. 

He stumbled over another, sleeping on a doorstep; 
half a dozen in the gutter, all waiting to be kicked and 
clubbed and dashed into the stone caves of the station- 
hoUvSe. 

Good men and women, knowing all this, lift up their 
hands and weep. 

Thousands, in every State of our dear Union, cry: 
“ Pray for them ! persuade them ! pledge them !” 

Alas, for one trumpet voice, charged with the power 
of heaven’s thunder, to cry: 

“ Heal them !” 

The physician would answer by hiding his face, 
ashamed and helpless. 

Hundreds of thousands, whom science has taught and 
sent forth to pour oil into gaping wounds, turn from 
the dipsomaniac, and abandon him to physical and 
spiritual death — 

“ Powerless to heal. ” 

Hear me! Men and women of the universe! 

Out of this host of wise men arises the figure of a 
Redeemer. 

A man who vows that the stricken inebriate may be 
healed, his leprous scales removed, his diseased body 
purged. 

His voice is heard throughout the land, and limping 
wretches, denied the rights of manhood, denied the 
touch of skilful hands, denied the burial our Christ re- 
ceived, flock to the standard of this new deliverer — 

“ Whose star is seen in the east!'* 

John Candor, parched and exhausted, sank upon the 
cushions of a sofa. Sleep might have come to him 
now, but for a fatal accident. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


49 


His quick ear caught a faint sound, not unlike the 
escape of steam from a miniature engine. 

He listened! then raised his head, until his eyes 
rested on the half-released cork in Mark’s bottle of 
“ Pommery Sec.” 

In a twinkling he was at the table. 

He did not stop to think how the wine came to be in 
his room. 

It was there ! 

He placed his hand on the green, glittering neck. 
It was cool and soothing to his touch. 

Bravely he fought, tore his hand from the deadly em- 
brace, and staggered back against the bed, clinging to 
himself as though striving to lift body and soul from 
destruction. 

The spitting effervescence ceased, and with a loud 
explosion the cork left the bottle, struck the ceiling 
and vanished, its work done. The fragrant liquid 
curled its amber loveliness into the air. 

John seized the black throat of the tempter, and pre- 
pared to kiss the opened lips. 

Then for the first time he noticed the bottle of brandy. 

“Hark!” 

He thought he heard a step in the hall. Oh, the 
cunning of the drunkard ! 

John seized the bottle of potent poison, and concealed 
it under his pillow. 

“Hark!” 

No! only the blood, pounding against his heart. 

Maddened by delay, he lifted the champagne from 
the table, and placed it — 

In the hands of his sister ! 

When a good woman learns to love, she grows doubly 
good, no matter how good she was before. 


50 


KING alcohol: 


At this hour Anna Candor was an an^el. Useless 
to reproduce the scene of tears, entreaties, prayers, and 
promises. 

At last Anna triumphed and left the room, carrying 
the wine in her cold, trembling hands. She was com- 
forted and encouraged. 

All through that long night, two women “ watched 
for the day,” and prayed for John Candor. 

At ten o’clock the next morning, they found his room 
deserted, and on the table an empty bottle labelled 
Hennessey Brandy."' 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE CRITICAL DAY. 

“In another week, John Candor will have forfeited 
his inheritance, and I, ‘born lucky,’ will become rich. 

“ I saw him last night standing up at the bar of the 
‘Casino,’ drinking champagne, and hastening to the 
devil at break-neck speed ; my amiable cousin will stop 
drinking when he stops breathing. ” 

So said Cousin Mark; he had long since thrown off 
all anxiety ; doubt of success was an element that did 
not enter into his life. 

He knew'CsxdX John could not comply with the stipula- 
tions of the dead man’s will. 

And he was right. 

The “dipsomaniac Candor” for nine months went 
through the formula of repeated orgie, and pulling 
himself back, through days and nights of torture, to 
comparative health, though never to happiness or re- 
stored confidence in himself. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 5 1 

John read “the handwriting on the wall,” and let 
himself drift. 

Two women who loved him wept together and faced 
the ordeal of “ heart-breaking, ” hand in hand. 

Nora’s father, very justly, as John admitted, forbade 
him the house. 

Nora was sternly ordered to renounce him and stifle 
her love. She, like a true woman, did neither. 

“ For better or for worse, ” that was the agreement, 
and being an honest girl Nora stood by her contract. 

To be sure, the gallant maiden had about given John 
up, as had his sister; but she could not see in that con- 
clusion any reason why she should abandon him. 

Nora knew that this man was wrecking her life as 
well as his own. 

She submitted to her fate, and prepared to go down 
by his side, with her colors flying. 

Woman’s fidelity. 

Anna could turn to her handsome pastor, and find a 
measure of consolation by a critical observation of his 
life, the ruling characteristic of which was love for 
her. 

Rose was worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars, 
and did not need his “ sweetheart’s” money. 

It was not with him the unclean story of seeking a 
maid for her dowry. 

Cupid left them no resource but to fall into each 
other’s arms; he drew his crooked bow and remorse- 
lessly drove a golden shaft through their hearts. 

Of course there followed the usual awakening, the 
superb dazzle, all have known ; the overwhelming de- 
light, the manly summons, the womanly capitulation. 

And now Anna found it a great “ rest” to lean heav- 
ily on the heart of her chosen knight. 


52 


KING alcohol: 


She did not love her dying brother less, but loved 
her parson more. 

And Rose himself, a good fellow, worked hard over 
the problems of Candor’s life and fatal decline. 

He did everything that ingenious thought could sug- 
gest and happily applied practice effect. 

He threw aside many of the labors and joys of his 
office to share the company and participate in the 
struggles of the sinking man. 

Arthur Rose, generous priest of God, simply said, 
“Why am I different from my brother?” and then went 
to work and tried to save the “ brother.” 

My fellow-men will say that John Candor had every 
chance in life to pull himself away from alcohol, and 
stay away. 

You err, sir; err through ignorance. You measure 
other men’s lives by your own; you are free from the 
drunkard’s disease, inherited or acquired, and you can- 
not understand his condition. 

God speed the light ! 

The dipsomaniac gladly forfeits heaven to earthly 
indulgence ; what power is strong enough to save him 
then? Will he render to mortals that which he denies 
to God? 

Is this indulgence, or disease? Think it over! 

The trustees, Redmund and Jarvis, were holding 
their nightly meeting in the house of the latter, on the 
date of this chapter’s opening. 

There was a splendid show of blazing coals in the 
grate, and hot water and hotter stimulants on the table. 

The grog steamed in their glasses, and the mellow 
content that comes with hot alcohol and sugar was now 
apparent in their posture of ease. 

Each man had swallowed a glass of disguised poison. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 53 

and the duplicate was ready on the table to answer the 
encore when demanded by the stomach. 

Both men were “moderate” (?) drinkers; both men 
were drunk to a certain degree. 

He who drinks one glass is drunk ; not in the gutter 
perhaps, but removed trom a state of sobriety. 

There is no such individual as the moderate drinker; 
one glass signifies immoderation. 

Men are intoxicated, less or more, in proportion to 
the amount of alcohol taken ; and this rule holds good, 
from one drop to one gallon. 

Our friends Redmund and Jarvis were basking in 
bliss; contentedly absorbing the precious compound 
man’s stomach refuses to digest, and which goes at 
once into the blood, just as the contents of the sewer 
enter the pure mountain stream. 

Redmund as usual broke the silence : “ When are 
you going to stop, Jarvis?” 

“After my death, Redmund.” 

“ I doubt it,” said the bulky executor; “you will find 
some means of supplying your inordinate desire for 
whiskey, even after your decease.” 

“ My best plan will be to keep you in sight. ” 

“The toddy has gone to your head, Jarvis.” 

“ To what part of my anatomy ought it to go?” 

Redmund did not reply at once. He looked into the 
fire and thought, while one may count a dozen ; then he 
turned on Jarvis and said: 

“We are not here to-night for the sole purpose of 
drinking punch, or exchanging badinage; we have a 
serious purpose in meeting to-night. ” 

“What purpose, Redmund?” 

“To discuss the condition of our ward, John Candor.” 

“I’m afraid he is past argument; it only remains to 
pass sentence.” 


54 


KING alcohol: 


“ Why so, Jarvis?” 

“ Because, dear Redmund, much as I deplore the con- 
clusion, I am convinced that the poor fellow is a con- 
firmed drunkard.” 

“ I agree with you ; but it by no means follows that 
there is no hope for the confirmed drunkard. ” 

“ I think it does follow. John Candor has tried every- 
thing.” 

“ Not everything.” 

“ No?” 

“No!” thundered Redmund; “ drunkenness is a dis- 
ease. ” 

“Well?” said Jarvis. 

“Cure it!” roared Redmund, with both hands raised 
in frantic gesture. 

“ How?” 

“ As you would any other deadly plague, by medical 
treatment. ” 

“John Candor has been in the hands of a dozen med- 
ical experts ; physicians say that there is no hope for 
him,” ventured Jarvis. 

“Not all; one man claims that he can cure John 
Candor.” 

“What is his name?” 

Leslie E. Keeley T 

“ And do you believe in that system of quackery?” 

“Now see here, Jarvis, I desire most earnestly to con- 
tinue my respect and friendship for you, so don’t let 
me think you unjust. ” 

Redmund was in earnest now, and little Jarvis 
crawled into his hole and peered timidly out through 
the opening. 

Redmund continued: 

“ In common with hundreds of thousands of your 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


55 


countrymen, you disbelieve because you are totally ig- 
norant; you follow in the wake of scepticism because 
it is a human characteristic to fight the incomprehen- 
sive, to condemn the unconventional, to quarrel with 
that which you cannot understand. 

“ This is rank injustice. ” 

“I do not wish to be unjust,” meekly muttered Jarvis. 

“Very well, then, listen to words of truth from an 
investigator.” 

“ Two months ago I stumbled into the town hall at 
Wellington, to pass an hour while waiting for a train 
to the city. 

“ The hall was comfortably filled with men and 
women, who were listening to an orator delivering a 
lecture on a subject he was pleased to call ‘practical 
temperance. ’ 

“ He was a fair speaker with any quantity of earnest- 
ness, and no one listening to his impassioned delivery 
could for a moment doubt his sincerity. 

He informed the audience that he had been a drunk- 
ard for twenty-five years; that he had used every means 
to overcome his alcoholic desire, without success, and 
finally saw nothing before him but suicide and eternal 
destruction. 

“ In a state of helpless indifference he was carried to 
the Keeley Institute at Susquehanna and there received 
the treatment prescribed by Dr. Keeley. 

“ Following this statement came a burst of eloquence 
that fairly thrilled the audience, myself included, as it 
would have thrilled you, doubting little Jarvis, had you 
been there.” 

“Go on,” said the other trustee; “don’t joke; lam 
interested. ” 

“ Behold the indorsement!” cried the speaker. 


KING alcohol: 


S6 

“ Yonder it is, a vast army one hundred thousand 
strong, marching shoulder to shoulder. 

“ Those soldiers are the men of the institute ; Keeley 
graduates. 

“ I point to this grand organization as it sweeps 
proudly by, and assure you that every soldier in that 
unwavering line has broken the chains of alcoholic serf- 
dom and lost forever the desire for alcohol. 

“After the lecture I permitted my train to depart 
without me, and sought an interview with the speaker 
at his hotel. 

“After an hour’s conversation with Mr. Carlisle, I 
found my unbelief giving way to conviction, and de- 
parted from Wellington, fully determined to make a 
test of the ‘Cure’ as applied by Dr. Keeley at Susque- 
hanna and a hundred other institutes. ’’ 

“What did you do?’’ inquired the highly interested 
and excited Jarvis. 

“ Assisted by Carlisle, I secured four inebriates ; men 
entirely helpless and worn-out; creatures who had 
passed through every stage of drunkenness from the 
primary phase of ‘moderation’ down to the last and 
final estate of the terrible object-lesson. 

“ After promising drinks all around I persuaded these 
men to take a bath ; this, you will admit, was an impor- 
tant advance. 

“ Then I clothed them in wool, and shod them in 
leather. 

“ They agreed to assist me in my experiment to the 
extent of going together to a Keeley Institute and there 
submitting to the Double Chloride of Gold Treatment. 

“ To make a long .story short, I will simply add that 
these men at the expiration of four weeks returned to 
New York completely regenerated. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 57 

“ That was a month ago, and my happy proteges get 
up in the morning and cheer for Keeley; and go to bed 
at night blessing the name of Redmund. 

“ Yesterday my recruits marched in upon me, sound, 
hearty, and entirely free from alcoholic desire. 

“Now, Jarvis, this is the much-abused Keeley Cure, 
as administered at Susquehanna. You had better pack 
your trunks and go at once.” 

The little trustee leaped out of his hole. 

“ What!” he cried. 

“Yes, my dear Jarvis, your nose is growing red.” 

“The alcoholic tears dim your eyes, brother Red- 
mund; but no more of this: I think I see the object of 
your investigations ; you have been working to save our 
young friend John.” 

“You are a funny little terrier, Jarvis.” 

“ And you are a great, big, good-hearted mastiff ; give 
me your hand, my dear partner; I begin to breathe 
easier; there is yet a possibility of securing the two 
millions, and of marrying our man to the lady of his 
choice.” 

And of saving his immortal soulf said the Rev. Arthur 
Rose, standing in the doorway of his friend’s sitting- 
room. 


CHAPTER X. 

THE ARK OF SAFETY. 

Anna Candor and Nora Livingston, names to con- 
jure by; two good women loving and loved; industri- 
ous workers in a common cause, yet working in vain. 
They labored in the dark ! 

The stricken man, helpless as a babe, and riven like 


KING alcohol: 


S8 

some great oak under the lightning’s stroke, staggered 
through his days and nights, fought his enemy, grew 
weaker after each assault ; and finally lifted up his voice 
and implored the great Jehovah to destroy him with 
one blow. 

He had long since given up all thought of the money 
he was to gain or lose — he had in fact ceased to desire 
it ; and when at last Anna came to him and standing by 
his bedside told him that the hour had almost arrived 
when to drink again would entail the destruction of his 
last hope, he simply answered : “ Let it go, dear ; I shall 
never need it.” 

Now this was positive despair. 

But one day there came a sunrise of renewed hope for 
him and those he loved, for tender-hearted friends 
with tears of joy told of the healing waters that were 
washing awa)^ the wounds of many thousands such as he. 

John heard their words as voices from heaven, cries 
from the unknown spirit-land, and his heart opened, 
and he longed to believe. 

Then with a cry of hysterical joy the leper put them 
forth from his room, and burst into prayers that went 
aloft and brought back the electric response : 

“ Arise f take up thy bed and walk r 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE AWFUL PREDICTION. 

A WEEK later Mark Candor walked into the presence 
of the trustees, Redmund and Jarvis, with his nose in 
the air. 

Redmund arose like a sultan about to order the de- 
capitation of his prime minister. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 59 

Seeing that this assumption of dignity was thrown 
away on the “claimant,” the grand reserve was aban- 
doned, and a tone of jocular badinage assumed. 

“You are looking cheery, my young friend, I may 
say chipper.” 

Jarvis walked to the window without paying the slight- 
est attention to the visitor. 

These men were not hypocrites nor diplomats; they 
were straightforward, honest fellows, who hated and 
despised Mark Candor ; why should they pretend other- 
wise? 

Mark did not throw aside one atom of his imperturba- 
ble demeanor, however; a man about to pick up two 
millions in the street can afford to pass over an occa- 
sional slight, or even appear oblivious to a positive 
insult. 

Mark certainly was “in it,” and he was aware of the 
fact; he knew these men hated him because of his 
coming triumph, and the young gentleman forgave them 
in advance of any solicitation on their part. 

He could afford to laugh certainly. 

“ I have come to you to-day, gentlemen, on a matter 
of business which will scarcely admit of a much longer 
postponement,” said Mark. 

“Then, for heaven’s sake, don’t delay! You know 
the old back-number sign that used to hang up in the 
counting houses,” said Redmund. 

“ Can’t say that I call to mind any particular sign, sir,” 
answered Mark, with his two-million-dollar smile. 

“ If I remember correctly, it read something like 
this: 

“‘Call upon a business man, during business hours, 
on business ; transact your business, and go about your 
business. ’ ” 


6o 


KING alcohol: 


Redmund roared this out like a second mate hailing 
the masthead during a gale of wind, and accompanied 
the words with a look that added a decided emphasis. 

But Mark remained calm and unbroken ; his case was 
a strong one and he knew it. 

Jarvis laid his little hand on his big partner’s arm, 
and stood beside him like a jolly-boat hooked on to a 
frigate. 

Then he made a nice little speech : 

“ Gently, gently, Redmund. I know it would be very 
much to your taste were you to take this gentleman by 
the back of the neck and that portion of his trousers 
most worn out, and by this means hasten his return to 
the street, but I do not see that such an act would help 
us to ascertain why he has done us the honor of calling 
this evening.” 

Mark gently stroked his long golden beard. 

“Don’t be rude, Jarvis,” thundered Redmund; “re- 
strain yourself as I do. I know you would enjoy the 
exercise of knocking that gentleman to the land of the 
Esquimau and the polar bear, but don’t do it, Jarvis; 
restrain yourself and let him live.” 

Poor little Jarvis answered very meekly, “I will, 
Redmund.” 

Mark, taking the advantage of the lull in the storm, 
quietly said: 

“ I am afraid you have been drinking, gentlemen.” 

“We have,” answered Redmund, clinching both 
hands; “two glasses each, our nightly allowance, quan- 
tity carefully measured, quality the best. ” 

Mark bowed and expressed his delight at their tem- 
perate habit of life, then continued : 

“ I have no need, gentlemen, to enter into the details 
of our commercial or financial relations. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 6 1 

“You are the guardians of John Candor, the execu- 
tors of his father’s will. The stipulations of that will 
are well known to you : If John Candor does not refrain 
from alcoholic drink during the year following the lat- 
ter part of next week, I then become the lawful heir.” 

“Well?” grunted Redmund, surveying the speaker 
as if he were a piece of gamey meat. 

“I am here seeking information. My cousin John 
cannot be found. ” 

“ You mean that cannot find him?” said Redmund. 

Mark twisted his beard and continued : 

“ Of course, as we well know, the poor lad is away on 
a spree. ” 

“Indeed!” grunted Redmund. “Well?” 

“ Now I would like to know what course you intend 
to pursue, if he is not in a place where his habits may 
be known and testified to at the commencement of and 
during the passage of the last year of his probation. ” 

“My dear sir,” said Redmund, “if John Candor is 
not to be found at or after the time you specify, and if 
we are unable to fix his whereabouts, these circumstan- 
ces will certainly operate against him in any decision 
we may be called upon to make.” 

“I thought I could rely on your discretion,” said 
Mark, working over the folds of his inevitable beard. 

Redmund paid no attention to the implied compli- 
ment, but bowled straight ahead : 

“ But you may be perfectly sure that John Candor can 
and will be found, at any time we may require his pres- 
ence; found, purged of the evil spirit born with his 
birth, and which you hoped would follow him to his 
grave.” 

“ Nonsense!” cried Mark, startled into the loss of his 
imperturbability. 


62 


KING ALCOHOL: 


“ There is no cure for the dipsomaniac. 

“You lie!” laughed Redmund in triumph. “There 
is a cure, and we have found it ; and to-day your cousin 
stands with his white arm bare to the shoulder, receiv- 
ing in his blood the blessed rain from heaven, the heal- 
ing gold of the scientist Keeley ! 

“ Now away with you ; go and weep and wail, gnash 
you teeth ; you have lost the game.” 

“No!” cried the now excited man, “I have not lost 
the game ; I have won ! 

“ The Keeley system cannot cure John Candor !'* 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE LIGHT THAT NEVER FAILS. 

The Susquehanna Institute is situated half-way up 
the rocky range that towers east of the Tiger River. 

It is a mile from the famous little town of Blue Wing. 
The spacious buildings of the Institute are shut in by 
grand old forest giants, and surrounded by glittering 
trout-streams that come from away up yonder and go 
everywhere. 

In summer nature’s verdant upholstering, thick and 
violet-studded, covers the black, fertile soil that gives 
spontaneous growth to the wild strawberry, the arbutus, 
and the fair lily of the valley. 

A scene of complete loveliness and peace, nature’s 
climatic triumph, a heavenly abode evacuated by the 
gods, where men throw away the burden of their ills 
and are born again. 

Here it is the clouded heavens begin to shine again 
for many a wondering man ; here the song of the moun- 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 63 

tain bird is tuned anew to their awakened ear ; here 
the cold earth begins to glow as does the sun, and at 
night the stars come out and bless them with a silent 
serenade. 

To the rear and left of the Institute leap and tumble 
over sable rocks and snow-white sand, the world-known. 

Lover’s Falls. 

A tiny Niagara, fed by mountain brooks, that lift 
their silver chorus of everlasting praise to the kind 
Creator of all. 

In the rear to the right, the Snow Crest Spring, bright 
and clear and cold as an iceberg, “goes on forever.’’ 

Sweet waters, blessed balm to parching throats, heal- 
ing elixir, gurgling fountain of health! I kneel to wor- 
ship thee, and kiss thy morning freshness. 

Across the valley, under a mighty cliff, nestles, pure 
as woman’s chastity, white as burnished silver, 

“Fair Lily Lake.’’ 

I stand upon thy golden shores, O Lake of Pearl! 
and call upon the name of one I love; and be that loved 
one quick or dead, a thousand voices warble in return, 
glad tidings of great joy — 

“ Her name!’’ 

I scale the iron front of ancient Tyrone, sit on his 
knees, lift aside his shaggy beard of moss and pink ar- 
butus, and peer into the sparkling waters of chaste 
“ Olina’s Baths.’’ 

But with eager eyes I turn from all, and seek to find 
again the sacred spot where branded slaves cast off 
their chains and learn to live as freemen. 

The sun sinking away to warm the grain prairies of 
the West throws back a good-night kiss, and a halo of 
glory crowns the cool fragrance of the distant 

“ Susquehanna. ’’ 


64 


KING alcohol: 


Down in the valley a black monster winds his way, 
serpent-like, over rushing streams and through silent 
forests. 

A puff of steam makes a white mark on the darkening 
landscape; then another, and in an instant the locomo- 
tive chime floods the air, strikes the mountain-side, and 
is chanted back over hill and dale, announcing to the 
happy valley that the “ New York Flyer” is thundering 
down the grade ready to cast forth its human freight 
at fair “ Blue Wing’s” doors. 

Many a suffering man on that vestibuled village slips 
quietly away from business, home, and club, with a 
merry good-by to friends, and the gilded fable on his 
tongue — 

“ Only a short trip to the mountains. ” 

Yes, sir, to the mountains, but not to mingle with 
the gay throng, not to sit at the festive board, for the 
doors of the Keeley Institute are thrown wide, and the 
limping believer seeking salvation is carried to that 
abode of peace and happiness up among the verdant 
slopes. 

But it is winter now; the “ Ice King” waves his scep- 
tre — the winds speak, the heavens open, and the valleys 
fill with snow. 

Fierce the trumpet-call of the wild mountain blizzard. 

The storm lion shakes his tangled mane, roars through 
the bending forest, and thunders around the sleeping 
mountain giants. 

Within the walls of the grand old Susquehanna, one 
may easily forget the war of monsters, and rest in lux- 
urious ease. 

Huge fireplaces, each with the traditional back-log, 
throw up their volume of cozy warmth and merry flame. 

The patients are resting quietly in their private 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 65 

apartments or lounging in the comfortable chairs of the 
drawing-rooms. 

In the “library,” studious convalescents may.be seen 
deep in the contemplation of standard authors. 

With the new life comes the craving for rational ac- 
tion, intellectual research, burnishing away the rust of 
years. 

New thoughts spring from the old brain soil; new 
desires from hearts newly born; a grand resurrection 
of ambitions long entombed. 

Eight o’clock A.M. 

The patients on this particular morning were assem- 
bled in the smoking-rooms. 

Not smoking ! 

Some sat quietly by the fireside, others looked out at 
the gambols of the snow-birds, but all were unoccupied. 

These men were waiting. 

Eagerly waiting. Something was about to happen 
which they evidently regarded as the most important 
event of the day. 

Ah! my brave fellows, treasure it as the most im- 
portant event of your lives. 

Hark! 

A man in the physician’s office touches an electric 
wart on the wall. 

A shrill appeal sounds through the house. 

Quickly, yet without confusion, the patients place 
themselves in line, and stand like soldiers on parade. 

Seventy in all, and the throbbing, breathing, living 
row stretches into the djrawing-room and overflows into 
the parlors. 

The physician stands in his office, and before him is 
the precious golden fluid, wrung from the crucibles of 
the great chemist’s laboratory. 


66 


KING alcohol: 


Dr. Hardy was a bright, happy-looking individual ; 
educated and prepared for his present responsible work 
under the eye of the great Keeley himself. 

He understood every patient in the Institute, and the 
patients understood and respected him. 

A grand point gained in this union. 

The first eager fellow standing at the head of the line 
advances; his coat hangs over his right arm; the left is 
free for the physician’s work, the shirt-sleeve open from 
the elbow to the shoulder. 

“ How did you sleep last night, Mr. Fleming?” in- 
quires the watchful Hardy with a genuine smile. 

“Well, sir!” is the answer, and there is a wealth of 
happiness and gratitude in the reply. 

“Good hearty breakfast, too, Mr. Fleming?” 

“I am ashamed to speak about my breakfast, ” laughs 
the happy man. 

The doctor grasps the arm, and examines the tongue. 

Then with a quick, deft motion, he touches the bare 
arm with the penetrating needle, and Fleming receives 
an injection of the precious element. 

The next man comes forward ; the same questions are 
asked, the same formula repeated. 

The answers are different, of course, for the men are 
in various stages of cure. 

Some are still nervous, having passed the night 
without sleep, and avoided the sumptuous breakfast- 
table; but mark this, all are happy; yes, even that tot- 
tering wretch, scarcely able to extend his arm to re- 
ceive the “treatment,” is happy. 

He knows that he has taken his last drink, and is 
about to become a man again; ay! feels the blood of 
renewed manhood stirring within him. 

This falling into line for “the shot” is repeated four 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 67 

times during the day, the soldiers advancing to the 
front and receiving the healing discharge of the pa- 
tient physician. 

Eight times during the day a powerful tonic is ad- 
ministered. 

These conditions of discipline complied with, the 
men under the treatment may amuse themselves as 
they please; life indoors and out is theirs to possess’ 
and enjoy, and they do enjoy life at the Keeley Insti- 
tute. 

As I heard my friend Crawford say, 

“ We have been sent to Paradise for our sins.” 

All through the night of his arrival at the Institute 
John Candor remained in his- comfortable chamber. 

Dark as a dungeon to hini^ however. 

Without pausing once for rest, the half-frantic man 
paced the floor. 

A four-ounce phial containing whiskey stood on the 
mantel. 

But the poison did not relieve him. He had reached 
that critical stage of dipsomania when alcohol refuses 
to soothe or intoxicate. 

No help in the draught, yet the terrible craving still 
present. 

At regular intervals Dr. Hardy came to him and ad- 
ministered a quieting potion. 

As regularly the tireless walker threw the medicine 
from his stomach, and resumed his tramp. 

The appearance of a glass of beef tea, offered by the 
gentle Anna, nearly threw John Candor into convulsions. 

Lucky day for him when Keeley proclaimed to the 
world 

Eureka ! 

J have found it. 


68 


KING alcohol: 


Happy man! in spite of his present awful woe, there 
was safety in his agony. 

But John was as yet an unbeliever. His mind was in 
that state just verging on delirium, when little fancies 
developed into monstrous conceptions. 

Dr. Hardy came to him with the syringe charged 
with the precious element of cure. 

Candor shrank from him in terror, and refused to re- 
ceive the' treatment. 

In reply to the doctor’s arguments, he said: 

“ I have been brought to this place without my knowl- 
edge or consent. ” 

“John, dear,” whispered Anna, “do you not remem- 
ber how you received the news of Dr. Keeley’s prom- 
ises; how hopefully you accepted this chance of re- 
demption?” 

“Don’t worry about me, child, I am lost; I do not 
desire to be cured, even were it possible ; I do not care 
for my father’s millions, or for woman’s love; I desire 
nothing but alcohol and death. 

“ I will not receive the treatment !" 

Patiently the faithful doctor waited, and then made 
preparations to spend the night in his office, knowing 
that he had to deal with a most critical case — one that 
would require constant watching. 

Dr. Hardy knew that this man in his present condi- 
tion would in all probability embrace the first opportu- 
nity of committing suicide. 

Two strong attendants were placed outside his door. 
John would not permit them to enter the room ; he fan- 
cied they were hired ruffians sent to murder him. 

Dr. Hardy advised Anna to retire. “You can do no 
good, and you are only wearing yourself out, my dear 
young lady. ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 69 

The devoted girl gentl}^ refused. At times she 
moved with the restless man, walking and turning with 
him, listening to his faint moans and ever clasping his 
feverish hand. 

At last, worn out, she sank into a seat, and prayed 
for day, for light, for any change. 

John’s sudden relapse and insane obstinacy came like 
a fierce blow to the sweet, hoping sister. 

In conjunction with Nora and Redmund, she had 
succeeded in starting John for the famous' Institute. 

Her many battles on the road with his fitful inebriate 
moods had been severe, but at last she had succeeded 
in her womanly endeavors, and the way apparently 
opened for her brother’s salvation. 

Nora wished to be allowed to join the adventurous 
party. 

Her father, ever on the watch, suspecting something 
wrong, refused to permit his daughter to leave the 
house. 

A miserable scene ensued, which almost developed 
into brutality on the part of the furious father. 

It ended in his locking Nora in her room, and plac- 
ing a detective under her window. 

All ru7ii this^ remember. 

The next day Nora Livingston was surrounded by 
physicians and nurses. 

Brain fever! 

Father sorry ! 

Anna, devoted girl, had no stern father to fasten her 
in her room, so to-night she was in a Keeley Institute, 
surrounded by strangers, looking on in an agony of fear 
at the antics of her loved brother. 

And now, after all her sufferings, all her feminine 
strategy, all her reviving hopes, with positive cure at hand^ 


70 


KING ALCOHOL: 


John Candor refused the treatment of the great physi- 
cian, and but twenty-four hours before the expiration of the 
first year. 

Daylight at last — no change ; except that the bottle 
on the mantel was twice emptied, twice refilled ; except 
that the burning man weakened in his tracks, and seemed 
to totter. 

Except that the girl’s delicate limbs grew feeble, 
and her heart began to die of loneliness, and starve for 
love and consolation. 

Tramp, tramp, no cessation. 

The weary attendants blinked and gaped in the entry. 

Anna looked out on the white land, a vast shroud 
over all. 

Suddenly there came a transformation, and the room 
brightened, not with the sun, but with 

One man' s face. 

A tall, handsome gentleman with clear-cut features, 
kindly eyes, and a smile that said sincerity,^ and that 
meant loving-kindness. 

That man’s presence would have thawed an iceberg 
and forced flowers to grow in the sand. 

The face belonged to Manager Worth, chief of the 
Institute, and general friend, brother, father to every 
man and woman inside of its walls. 

The man of all men most worthy to fill this place, 
the man most capable of assuming this grand respon- 
sibility. 

A counsellor to his band of suffering clients, a loving 
shepherd in the midst of his flock. 

He smiled on Anna, and gave her a cheerful “ good- 
morning.” 

He spoke gently to John, and held his hand, flushed 
and burning. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 7 1 

For the first time in all those weary hours of watch- 
ing, Anna saw her brother pause in his walk. 

She arose and went to them. She wanted to be near 
to this new-comer ; she desired to clasp his moist healthy 
hand, and see him smile on her again. 

He spoke, and in that low, soft voice there was a 
power, a charm that rested and revived her. 

“ Go, Miss Candor,” he said, “ and leave your brother 
with me.” 

She had now no thought of refusing. 

The manager called in one of the “attendants.” 

John shrank back, trembling, but still clutching his 
new friend’s hand. 

Mr. Worth spoke to the attendant: 

“ Take this lady to my office, and see that she has 
breakfast served there.” Then to Anna, “Go to your 
room, my child, and freshen up those pale cheeks, and 
afterward eat that you may live ; much virtue in coffee 
and chops.” 

John tried to detain her. 

“ She shall not go.” 

Mr. Worth soothed him with a few reassuring words. 

Anna left the room. 

Hope began to revive in the maiden’s heart. 

Five minutes later she stood in Worth’s office, her 
face pressed against the half-glass door that intervened 
between her and the line of men in the surgery. 

She looked on the faces of those redeemed beings, 
and knew as she watched their childlike confidence in 
the doctor and his work that this great remedy, berated 
by the sceptics, was indeed the grand scientific truth 
of the century. 

“Yes, the truth,” she moaned; “and my loved one 
denies it ; the truth, and he refuses to believe it. ” 


72 


KING alcohol: 


She could not weep; her tears were all spent. She 
could only gaze on the line of patient, hoping men, and 
quiver with anguish. 

He was not in that line, the line she knew would go 
on forever. 

Ves, to all eternity ! 

One hundred thousand saved, and her lost one refus- 
ing succor. 

Her dying mother bade her care for the son she was 
leaving, and now Anna’s heart yearned over his body 
and spirit and moaned as for the dead, for he was away 
from that line of safety. 

The white face pressed against the glass grew whiter, 
the beautiful eyes sadder and more wistful. 

The last patient received his treatment and disap- 
peared. The doctor wiped his instrument and prepared 
to depart. Then his cheery voice rang out: 

“ Any more?” 

Yes, another! 

For John Candor tottered across the threshold, and 
stretching out his mighty arm — 

Ceased to be a dipsomaniac. 

“ And now, then. Miss Candor, to breakfast. ” 

Anna turned and met the smile of Manager Worth. 
Womanlike she wanted to cry, but, being only woman, 
she obeyed her master, man, and began to eat. 


CHAPTER XHI. 

READY FOR THE RACK. 

Do not think, dear friends, that this man’s troubles 
ceased the hour he submitted to Dr. Keeley’s treatment. 
His physical organism had been racked and torn by 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 73 

years of unnatural indulgence ; his blood was as impure 
as the hot fluid that races through the sufferer from 
yellow fever. 

His stomach, long abused and neglected, served his 
needs scarcely more than a pouch of leather. 

Every nerve in his body was at war with nature; the 
restless activity of these sensitive tissues overcame 
every product of manly reason, and reduced the victim 
to hysterical imbecility. 

Viewed even from a rational standpoint, as weighed 
by a mind deliberate and normal, his condition was 
pitiable. 

As seen through the magnifying lens of a distorted 
imagination, such as now held possession of Candor’s 
brain, his condition was agonizing beyond description. 

Through the chaos of kaleidoscopic thoughts, one 
vivid reflection ever bore itself to the front, with vivid 
power : 

I did it r 

Though by birth and inheritance the legatee of this 
fierce desire, he found little comfort in the thought of 
his irresponsibility. 

I did it r 

That was the wormwood in his cup. 

The world at large looked upon him as a drunken 
sot, wilfully accepting illicit pleasure, treading under 
his heel every instinct of goodness and nobility. 

The ignorant world, with its cautious, unwilling ap- 
proach to the new and startling, refused to inquire; 
they simply classed Candor with the mass of “ unhung 
outcasts,” lumped all together, threw them into a cell, 
and turned the hose on them. 

John knew all this, and if at one time he had been 
disposed to look upon his fitful, feverish life with char- 


74 


KING alcohol: 


itable introspection, he had since learned that his fel- 
low-men preferred to quarrel with such a theory, ignor- 
ing everything in connection with his case but the fact 
that he was a 

'‘^Perpetual nuisance P 

This constant application of the old rule, an “ eye for 
an eye,” became at last accepted by John as simple jus- 
tice, and in the end he discarded the comforting thought 
that he was an innocent sinner, and began to feel that 
mere accident of birth and money kept him from the 
fate of the beer-soaked tramp who serves his time with 
periodical regularity on “ Blackwell’s Island.” 

Many men of many minds and bodies ; no two indi- 
viduals are formed alike ; one brother may enter a small- 
pox hospital and nurse the sick for weeks without re- 
ceiving a taint of disease. Another brother walks 
within a mile of the plague-spot, and is overthrown. 

I do not know why this is so ; I am only aware of the 
fact ; neither can you, my friend, boast because your ap- 
petite is not an alcoholic one. If you are free from this 
taint, it is simply because you are differently constituted 
from the dipsomaniac at your doors, who may be your 
superior in everything but his involuntary weakness. 

Men go to the Keeley treatment, each with his own 
excuse, each with a different story. 

Some arrive nearly whole; they may not have ac- 
quired the disease, nor inherited it. 

With them it is simply a habit which they fancy will 
in thd end become a fixture. 

Very wisely they take it in time. Others of the dip- 
somaniac class present themselves after weeks, or per- 
haps months, of total abstinence. 

These men feel the certainty of an early fall, and 
manfully decide to burn their bridges and put their 
enemy in the flames. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 75 

The steady drinkers come in multitudes, men who 
carry on life’s work through the inspiration given by 
twenty glasses per day. 

Next year, however, the twenty drinks per day“ don’t 
quite go around,” and the “steady” — I mean “un- 
steady” — man adds another five to the old-time number. 

He says, “ he knows when to stop. ” Some one sug- 
gests that he “try to stop for forty-eight hours.” 

He tries, and, frightened at the result, presents him- 
self at the Institute. 

John Candor belonged to the class of patients who 
come to the “ark” in a deplorable condition of mind 
and body. 

Whatever became of those poor wretches before Dr. 
Keeley discovered means for their relief, I cannot im- 
agine. I do not want to know. 

John Candor, who had been indulging in a series of 
protracted sprees, without the help of solid food or nat- 
ural sleep, knew from experience that he had before him 
days of suffering and nights of torture. 

He was nearer to the realization of delirium tremens 
than ever before ; and had he been abandoned now to 
the formula of the ordinary practitioner, John would 
of necessity have participated in phantom combats with 
snakes and other disagreeable monsters. 

The old routine of the “Inebriates’ Retreat,” would 
have fastened him down with straps to prevent him 
from decapitating himself with a razor or leaping from 
the window. 

But they manage these things by a different rule in 
the Keeley Institute, and after John received his first 
hypodermic injection at the hands of Dr. Hardy he 
walked from the physician’s office straight into the arms 
of loving confederates. 


76 


KING alcohol: 


All knew his exact condition ; all were ready to min- 
ister to his needs. 

The fact that he was among friends, that he was in 
the right place, that he had done the wise act of his 
life in following his little sister to Blue Wing, was al- 
ready an element of encouraging strength on which to 
lean. 

With the first act of obedience to the peculiar method 
of Dr. Keeley’s treatment comes hope to the despair- 
ing man. 

John Candor now anchored his soul to this hope, and 
believed. 

What Manager Worth said to the obstinate man in 
his own room, after Anna’s departure, no one knows 
but those twain, and 

God. 

Perhaps that interview is recorded above; perhaps 
for that hour’s work the pleading man, fighting for a 
brother’s soul, will one day reap a reward far above 
the worth of earthly harvest of gold or grain. Perhaps, 
in some unknown future, a voice will say to him: 

“Well done! good and faithful servant!” 

From the moment the needle discharged the golden 
liquid into his arm. Candor became a new man. 

The potent fluid, entering his veins, conferred the 
magical delight found by the thirsty traveller who 
drinks and drinks again of the cold spring. 

The first injection administered. Dr. Hardy released 
the patient’s hand, and the feeble man, flushed with a 
sudden hope, a joy never before known by him, stag- 
gered back and leaned against the wall. 

The alert physician hurried to his side, and seized 
his hand again. 

Then these two men looked into each other’s eyes! 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


77 


Hardy said afterward that he was “ dazzled” by what 
he saw; for on that instant there came over John Can- 
dor’s face a glow one might expect to see on the coun- 
tenance of the tortured martyr, who, his earthly suffer- 
ings ended, gazes for the first time on the Christ for 
whose sake he has endured. 

That look on Candor’s face meant salvation. “ What 
is it, Mr. Candor?” inquired Dr. Hardy. 

“What is it, man?” cried out the shivering invalid, 
“what is it? 

“ The curse of my birth has fallen from me. 

“ Now I am ready for the rack 


CHAPTER XIV. 

THE OATH. 

At the time of my present interview with you, my 
fair and masculine reader, in the year of our Lord, De- 
cember 25th, 1892, one hundred thousand men and wo- 
men have been treated by the “ Keeley system of cure. ” 

Of this enormous army, but five per cent have re- 
lapsed into their old habits, while the mighty majority, 
ninety-five out of every hundred, remain steadfast. 

This is Christmas eve, 1892, as I sit fastening my 
grateful thoughts to this paper, every word of which is 
heavy with gratitude for my own redemption from the 
curse of self-murder. 

Last Christmas I looked upon the world as a yellow 
desert peopled with thieves, hypocrites, and general 
soul -destroyers. 

Last Christmas I shuddered at the clang of my own 
door-bell and became frantic with nervous terror at the 
rattle of an elevated train. 


78 


KING ALCOHOL: 


I had reached that stage of dipsomania when will 
power was dead and ready for burial. 

Looking into the near future, I saw speedy dissolu- 
tion of life by my own hand. 

With me it was simply the time, the place, and the 
instrument of death. 

A newspaper lay upon the table before me, describ- 
ing the unhappy end of my dearest friend who had 
committed suicide in a New York hotel. 

A vivid picture of his fearful death-struggle was 
given in the sensational sheet, a bold feature of which 
was the folding back and breaking of his spine. 

And so they found him. 

A year has passed. 

Mingled with my prayers of gratitude to God for my 
own regeneration are miserable regrets that I cannot 
call that loved one back and heal him. 

Too late ! 

Terrible words, too late. 

If you need those healing waters, go to them and 
drink your fill ; do not wait another year. 

Go now ! 

A year from now that fountain may be closed to you 
forever. 

Blessed Christmas of to-day, I greet you with joy and 
laughter. 

Come weal or woe, I am ready for the work of Him 
who has said — 

“ Thy faith hath made thee whole . " 

John Candor went bravely to meet the suffering he 
knew no skill could avert. 

He saw men around him healed and ready to depart. 

Others gradually throwing off their weakness and 
accepting with manly delight the gift of freedom. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


79 


John knew that after a weary period of tremulous 
pain he would join the happy band whose cry was ever: 

“ Hasten to our ranks and wear the accoutrements of 
the brave. 

He received four applications of the treatment dur- 
ing his first day. 

The insidious compound darted into his veins and at 
once attacked the alcoholic fungus clustering about his 
lacerated nerves. 

With every breath he drew, John Candor was con- 
scious of the struggle going on in his system. 

He resolved to assist the remedy by manly endurance 
and patience. 

The watchful doctor ordered him to his room after 
the last treatment at 7 130, and to prevent positive suf- 
fering during the night, gave him a four-ounce phial 
filled with whiskey. John retired and waited alone. 

Anna entered the apartment, a sister’s privilege, and 
drew a chair to the bedside. 

“John, you are saved.” 

“Am I worth it?” 

“ Yes, my brother!” and the fond girl kissed his brow 
and let her tears fall on his face, every drop a good 
woman’s prayer. 

Then they spoke of Nora. Candor’s heart well-nigh 
broke when he thought of the knife he had driven into 
her soul. 

“ Do you remember what day this is?” gasped Anna 
through a burst of sobs. 

“The day, little girl? No, I do not count the days 
any more; they are all the same to me.” 

“ Listen to me, John. I do not mean that. Father’s 
will is twelve months old after twelve o’clock to-night; 
from that hour 5^ou enter on the last year.” 


8o 


KING alcohol: 


John sat upright in the bed. 

“ Two millions of dollars may be squandered half an 
hour after midnight. 

“ Two millions of dollars for a drink of whiskey, and 
your own destruction accomplished.” 

Piteously Anna wept and entreated. 

“You will not drink and destroy all; the doctor is 
sure that if you will fight it for a few hours longer, the 
desire will leave you; let me take that bottle away.” 

He fell back on the pillow and moaned ; Anna placed 
her tired hand on his forehead. 

The white blessing rested there until he slept. 

Poor girl, she nodded at her task and forgot the fatal 
phial. Worth, good Samaritan, entered the room, and 
drew her noiselessly into the hall. 

“You need sleep, child; we must look out for your 
nerves as well as your brother’s.” 

He rang a bell communicating with the matron’s 
room. 

The motherly creature came on the first click of the 
electricity; watchful, cautious, patient, tireless Mrs. 
Fairchild, you honor this page when I write your name 
on it. 

Mr. Worth turned the tired girl over to the lady’s 
care and then returned to John. 

He was sleeping quietly. The manager darkened 
the room and arranged the fire. 

Then he stood and looked down at the figure on the 
bed. 

What was passing in his soul as he stood there where 
he had so often stood by the bed of the suffering, who 
can tell? 

John’s slumber deepened and the manager touched 
his pulse. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 8 1 

Then he left the room and closed the door. 

An attendant received orders to sit outside the sick 
man’s apartment. 

Mrs. Fairchild came from Anna’s room with her kind 
smile appearing too large for her sweet face. 

“ Has Miss Candor retired?” inquired Mr. Worth. 

“Yes, sir, after falling dead asleep in my arms; she 
is good for twelve hours at least.” 

“ The worst will soon be over for them both, I hope ; 
good-night, Mrs. Fairchild.” 

And these two busy people went their way, each bent 
on some errand of mercy. 

But left the phial behind them. 

On this night that was to usher in the struggle for 
the two millions John Candor slept soundly. 

The doctor had given him a sedative that produced 
the effect desired, sleep ! 

John knew that it was the trustees’ decision to accept 
his word as to his having complied with the conditions 
that would make the millions his own, or give them to 
his cousin. 

This was not so much an admission of their perfect 
faith in his truth, as it was the recognition of a ne- 
cessity. 

The will provided no course of action by which the 
total abstinence of the possible legatee was to be es- 
tablished. 

This omission of force left the decision in the hands 
of the executors, and if the truth was known these gen- 
tlemen were but too glad to avail themselves of a cir- 
cumstance that would relieve them of all doubt in the 
matter, or legal intervention. 

They would simply take John' s word. 

Of the justice of this, both were positive: John Can- 


82 


KING alcohol: 


dor, Sr., was a man of most pronounced honesty and 
truth. 

Young John had been known from cradle to school, 
from school to manhood, as “ Honest John, truthful 
John.” 

The legacy of misery he had inherited had not made 
a liar of him. 

He still retained the chivalrous devotion to truth that 
distinguished him throughout life. 

To win the money by a lie ! 

Never! 

To yield to the tempter and revel in the prohibited 
sin and then deny his guilt in order to win that which 
his father had written “Thou shalt not have;” no! 
Though following in many ways the habits of the dip- 
somaniac, John was head and shoulders above mean- 
ness or voluntary crime. 

Cousin Mark was of course much troubled at the de- 
cision of the executors. 

If John Candor went before them at the expiration 
of the opening year, and protested that he had not 
tasted alcohol, and these men accepted his unsupported 
word, what should he do? 

Give up his millions; quietly submit to the decision 
and throw himself on John’s generosity? 

Mark did not remain long in a state of indecision. 

He took a solemn oath that should his cousin speak 
the words that would deprive him of his uncle’s bequest 
he would then by force, fraud, and cruelty be prepared 
to prove such declarations — 

Her 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


83 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE LIGHT DOES NOT FAIL. 

One o'clock a.m. 

John slept five hours, and the force of the hypnotic 
having spent itself he awoke trembling and parched, 
and rolled from the bed a mass of burning flesh. 

His slippers stood ready for use. 

His feet entered them. 

A heavy gown hung on the chair. 

He put it on. 

His hands shook so terribly that he could not button 
it, so he merely drew the cord about his waist. 

His condition was now pitiable — I may say critical, 
desperate. 

Yes, the crisis had arrived. Bent and trembling, this 
man stood under the watchful eye of his God. 

That God who helps men who helps themselves. 

The God who answers prayer when it is followed by 
action. 

By coming to this Institute, he had placed himself in 
the way of God’s help, though now he was but a mass 
of flesh and blood on fire. 

Moisture cannot exist under such circumstances, and 
the juices of his body were congealed and coagulated. 

For ten years he had known what it was to long for 
alcoholic relief, to fight it, and yield in the end. 

Now the craving for the hell-broth was upon him as 
never before. 

The critical, moment arrived. 


84 


KING alcohol: 


He turned his eye to the half-filled phial, and in im- 
agination allowed the red poison to glide over his 
tongue and trickle down his throat. 

The fancy itself was an ecstasy, the very thought a 
joy beyond expression. 

With the anticipation of this frenzied delight came 
the hellish thought that salvation was not for him. 

That he was among the five in every hundred 
doomed to despair. 

'The promises of the medicine were not to be fulfilled. 
He had taken the remedy, believed, and rejoiced. 

Now he stood before the alcoholic king, more abject 
in his slavery than ever before. 

Appetite uncontrollable ! 

He must drink. 

The pale face of the clock held out in bold relief its 
black hands: 

“ Fifteen minutes after one. ” 

Each pointer on the dial seemed to speak a warning. 
Every response of the swaying pendulum whispered: 

Hold back r 

The man’s mind, active almost to delirium, fully 
realized the awful meaning of the coming sacrifice. 

Two millions of dollars, and an immortal soul for an 
ounce of whiskey. 

This is dipsomania. 

Should he kill himself or drink? That was the ques- 
tion. 

With the means at hand, a knife, a pistol, a deep pool 
in which to plunge, he would have chosen suicide. 
He must drink and pay the forfeit. 

The phial was in his hands. 

The cork was drawn. 

Slowly from the crystal lips arose the foul breath of 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 85 

the sleeping beast within. The mournful clock chimed 
half-past one. 

The dipsomaniac heard not that still, small voice. 

The hand clasping the phial was raised, then stopped 
half-way in its passage to the mouth. 

Again that potent vapor arose from the opened bottle. 

Watch the working face and note the change. A 
moment since, eager desire, uncontrollable lust, des- 
perate appetite ; now in every feature 
Disgusts 

Wonder, and rejoice with him, all ye inhabitants of 
God’s earth. 

He did not want to drink ! 

Face to face with the greatest danger of his life, he 
found that Keeley did not lie. 

Without knowing that he laughed he shouted for joy. 

Free ! 

Throwing aside the cover of the stove, he poured the 
liquor on the coals. 

Again he laughed. 

Doors opened on each floor, hurrying feet carried 
anxious men and women to the spot whence came the 
pealing cries of joy. 

First Manager Worth, ready to assist and succor ; then 
the doctor ; then Anna and the matron. 

Faces peered in at the door, white and startled. 

Candor stood in the middle of the room, the phial in 
his hands. 

Anna rushed to him and seized the bottle. 

Empty ! 

A hysterical shriek burst from her lips : “ Lost ! Lost 
your money and your soul!” 

John pointed to the blue flame arising from the 
stove : 


86 


mNG alcohol: 


“ No, Anna. I drank alcohol for the last time yester- 
day. My father’s millions are mine, and 
“ My soul belongs to God! ” 


CHAPTER XVI. 

THE GAUNTLET THROWN DOWN. 

“Double chloride of gold,” together with Dr. Kee- 
ley’s mysterious ingredient administered to Candor, 
came to his succor at the critical moment, and drove 
the alcoholic thirst from its intrenched stronghold. 

My fellow-beings in every portion of our country, 
there are men in your midst who will look you in the 
face and vouch for the accuracy of what you have just 
read. 

Certain incidents narrated may have been dressed 
in pleasingly romantic colors, but so far as I have gone, 
so far as I shall go in this volume, nothing has been or 
will be written regarding the value of this great rem- 
edy but what is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth, so help me God ! 

The case of John Candor and his wonderful rescue is 
not an isolated one. 

Thousands who have been dashed to the dust by the 
hand of alcoholic hate have been lifted from their filthy 
beds and enthroned among God’s elect, by the firm 
but gentle work of the Keeley Cure. 

I ask you to go among these men and demand a cor- 
roboration or a denial of what has been given to you in 
these pages. 

Listen to their reply, listen to their words of praise 
and gratitude. Mark the glow illumine their happy 
faces, the bright sparkle in their eyes. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 87 

Ask them if the case of John Candor is an invention, 
its publication the crusade of the advertiser. And this 
redeemed host will answer to a man, ''No! It is the 
truths simple God-like truth r Go to their homes, ask their 
wives, fathers, mothers, sisters. Seek information from 
their little ones, renewed, healthy, happy little children, 
once welcomed to the arms of Him who said, “ Of such 
is the Kingdom of Heaven P* 

Each glad witness will point to the rescued, and say, 
“ The half had not been told us.” 

Candor’s appetite for strong drink had gone forever, 
cast down at the altar with his burden of sin and woe, 
from which he departed clothed and in his right mind. 

The Keeley graduate never returns to alcohol through 
the coercion of animal desire; the five per cent who 
relapse prefer the drunkard’s life to the delights of 
home and family. 

They prefer the gutter to green fields, darkness to 
light. Hell to Heaven ! 

These men are mere animals, lower than the beasts. 
Keeley does not treat quadrupeds. Grateful hearts 
bless the great physician, cheerful voices sing the 
praises of Manager Worth and his home of rescue. 

It was now a direct fact firmly planted, thoroughly 
established, that Candor was saved, and his millions 
snatched from the hands of his cousin Mark. 

The trustees heard the news by wire and rejoiced. 

Nora read it on her sick bed in Anna’s dainty hand 
and it was a bracing tonic to the sick girl. 

The Rev. Arthur Rose heard it with both ears and 
with delight, and at once redoubled the amount of his 
already extravagant charities. 

Mark Candor heard it, rushed to his room, and locked 
himself in. Then he swallowed that which his cousin 
John had thrown in the fire: 


88 


KING alcohol: 


Two ounces of whiskey. 

Mark now became a conspirator. 

When he retired that night, he felt confident of suc- 
cess; he nourished himself with the assurance that John 
was an imbecile inebriate, and would, of force, continue 
to drink. 

When he heard of his arrival at the Institute, his 
calmness remained undisturbed; he was sure that the 
treatment would fail when applied to his rival, John 
Candor. 

The news of its successful application came to him 
like a blow between the eyes. 

When two weeks had passed, and confirmation of 
John’s stability reached him, he ground his teeth with 
rage, and, strange to say, turned to alcohol for advice. 

This is what he evolved through the suggestion of 
his new ally : 

“ Keeley cures dipsomania by a systematic course of 
medicine. 

“ I will overthrow Keeley’s work so far as it relates 
to John Candor, by a systematic course of villany.” 

He threw the gauntlet at the feet of the great physi- 
cian. 

And Dr. Keeley picked it up. 


CHAPTER XVIL 

ON THE RACK. 

“ A FEW days of despondency and gloom, a few nights 
of weird fancies, and then for the strength of my new 
life.” 

So said John to himself after bravely extinguishing 
his light, locking his door, and turning into bed. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 89 

He refused the hypnotic suggested by his watchful 
sister, and got under the sheets determined to fight it 
out alone. 

Many a man in John’s condition escapes wakeful de- 
lirium to be tortured with whips scarcely less painful. 

Drea?ns. 

They came to John this night. 

He stood in the office of his favorite New York hotel 
and secured a room in which to conceal a satchel filled 
with golden eagles and bonds. 

By the direction of the clerk, he was conducted to the 
elevator, and started on his skyward journey. 

They left the office floor, passed the second, third, 
and fifth flights without halting. 

Up rose the “lift” until John had counted thirty 
stories. 

Then he turned and inquired : 

“ Where are we going?” 

The attendant who had started the elevator was a 
light-colored, polite lad, well known to John. 

The object now standing before him was a black 
monster! — so black indeed that coal tar would have 
made a white splash on his face. 

He was nude to the waist, about four feet high, 
and measured the same across the shoulders. 

The face must have been battered out of all human 
semblance and then allowed to heal in great seams 
and rugged furrows, gashes, and protuberances which 
effectually eradicated everything like mouth, nose, or 
eyes. 

A huge gash ran across his face, terminating on 
either side where the ears should have been — this was 
his mouth. 

His one eye, if we may so designate the round hole 


90 


KING ALCOHOL: 


in his forehead, was green in color, and revolved like 
a firework wheel. 

Between the lips of his canal-like mouth this giant 
dwarf clinched a half-smoked cigar, the lighted end of 
which sputtered and burned like molten iron. 

His breast was covered with black moss, and the huge 
arms were tattooed with devices that gave out a phos- 
phorescent light and smell. 

The enormous feet were uncovered ; the toes twisted, 
knotted, and combined ; anon spread out like a mighty 
fan and again clinched and snapped, as one snaps his 
fingers. 

With this unnamable monstrosity, John was impris- 
oned miles above the city of New York, and the frail 
elevator still ascending. 

The first act of the human fiend was to snatch the 
bag of gold from John’s hand and swallow it. 

Candor’s right fist flew out from his shoulder, straight 
at the monster’s face. 

The opened mouth received his hand, and the iron 
teeth closed on his wrist. 

Then with a snort of pleasure the “man animal’’ 
placed the lighted end of his cigar in his victim’s eyes, 
first the right and then the left. 

Candor became stone-blind. 

He struck out desperately ; his blows fell against the 
side of the elevator. 

Monster and gold had disappeared. John was now 
conscious that the elevator was descending, and at a 
rate of speed fifty times faster than the swiftest loco- 
motive can fly. 

And so amid the horrors of blindness and rapidly ap- 
proaching death, he fell downward, and struck the earth, 
or rather the floor of his room ; for there the poor fel- 


A ROMANCE OP THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 9 1 

low found himself clutching the table and shaking in 
helpless agony. 

He did not call for assistance, however. His slight- 
est appeal would have been answered instantly. 

Brain came to the front. 

“ Only a dream. ” 

But the brave fellow who refused to call for help, or 
touch his bell, burst into tears and wept like a child. 
All this means outraged nerves, nothing more. 

After a short tussle with himself, John walked to the 
mantel and took a drink of Keeley’s generous tonic; 
it warmed him like a hot blanket, and under its inspi- 
ration he ventured to return to his bed. 

Again he tried the effect of sleep, manfully resolving 
to “ down the phantoms,” black and white. 

Worn out, he again sank into fitful slumber. 

Fancy now led him to take a walk in the orchard of 
his country home and stand under his favorite apple- 
tree. 

Suddenly he found himself bound hand and foot. 

He could not move a finger. Around his legs, body, 
arms, and throat a stout rope was wound. 

This rope gradually changed into a serpent, whose 
cold, flat head rested on his bosom. 

The reptile slept. 

The jaws were slightly parted, disclosing deadly 
fangs from which poison trickled and fell in great drops 
to the ground. 

His first impulse was to seize the reptile by the throat 
and strangle it. 

He could not stir ! 

Next he remembered that the hideous sleeper must 
not be disturbed. 

Should it awaken, the sharp teeth charged with poi. 
son would be buried in his throat. 


92 


KING alcohol: 


He suspended his breath lest the motion of his lungs 
might disturb that awful slumber. 

Suddenly his old enemy, the elevator monster, ap- 
peared before him, his outstretched hand holding the 
never-dying cigar close to the serpent’s tail. 

Contemplate if you can the suspense of agony of the 
dream-haunted man. 

Years of hell in one little atom of time! 

The burning tobacco fell on the reptile’s scales, and 
with a -thousand wild contortions it shook Candor’s 
frame and vanished, leaving its victim entangled in 
the folds of bedclothing. 

“ Shall I fight it out?” he muttered between his chat- 
tering teeth. 

“ Ves, it is my own work^ I did it T 

White as snow and large as a tiger, there came a new 
visitor even now while he was awake. 

A cat, demure and observing, stood on the foot of his 
bed. 

The animal seemed to rise in the air, impelled by 
other power than its own ; the magic of its motion de- 
fied analysis*, it rested for an instant above the bed, 
and then sank silently to the floor. 

Not a sound ! 

Had John Candor at this point of agony shrieked in 
terror and buried his head under the clothing, the usual 
mode of action in such emergencies, he would in an- 
other moment have been in the throes of delirium 
tremens. 

He did nothing of the kind; the man’s grand will, 
returning will, came to his aid with rational suggestions. 

Wet to drowning with cold sweat, he braced himself 
manfully and grimly muttered Anna’s old words: 

'‘'‘Nothing there r 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 93 

Then in a half-jocular way he spoke : 

“ Call off your dogs, Satan. I am not to be driven 
mad.” 

And now the sufferer performed an act of “horse 
sense” — common sense, if you will. 

Like a brave fellow he had fought, and conquered, 
for the time at least. Now to find partial relief. 

With some difficulty he lit his lamp. 

“Now come on, animals,” he said; “we will receive 
you one by one, or in groups.” 

Brain conquered. 

He walked to his door, unlocked, and opened it. 

An attendant stood before him, patient and sentry- 
like; near at hand was a step-ladder; finding the sick 
man’s door fastened, he had provided this means of 
crawling through the transom, should such a mode of 
entrance become necessary. 

“ Always be prepared for the unexpected. ” This is 
the rule of the Institute. 

“ How are you, sir?” inquired the attendant. 

“ Very thirsty.” 

The man touched a button on the wall, and a boy 
with winged feet brought a pitcher of sparkling water. 

“Thank you,” murmured poor Candor, with a burst 
of gratitude. Then he drank like a thirsty horse, emp- 
tying the pitcher at a draught. 

“ Do you need anything more?” asked the attendant, 
who had entered the room and arranged John’s tumbled 
bed. 

For a moment the thought occurred to this newly born 
man to request the strong keeper to remain with him. 

Then came the courage of manhood, and with a kind 
“ good-night” he closed his dopr and patiently awaited 
his further punishment 


94 


KING alcohol: 


It came after a time in this shape: The vision of 
a girl, the fairest of the fair, standing by his bedside, 
holding in her hands fresh-found roses, violets, and 
clusters of sweet arbutus. 

She spoke the language of flowers, which is love. 

And the troubled sleep became peaceful, and the 
tired spirit of the overwrought man found balm in the 
words : 

“ I love you, John; be of good cheer.” 

The figure was that of an angel and the face was — 

Nora Livingston' s ! 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

MR. PECK OF WORCESTER. 

A WEEK after date John Candor was climbing moun- 
tains, singing through the forests, eating three noble 
meals a day, and putting in ten hours’ natural sleep 
without turning over in bed. 

That means strength, health, nerve. Always a splen- 
did-looking animal, he now expanded into the figure of 
a god. 

The digestion and assimilation of nutritious food is 
one of the first factors in physical health. 

Quiet sleep in maximum quantities tempers the 
nerves and subdues friction. 

A healthy stomach makes a healthy brain. 

Perfection implies complete unison of body and soul. 

Mind and matter must harmonize to make spiritual 
and physical perfection possible. 

When this is an accomplished fact, we find red cheeks, 
pink patches on the temples, and eyes with the sparkle 
of the stars. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 95 

Health is happiness and salvation to a large degree. 

Therefore I say, heal the inebriate’s body, and God 
will take care of his soul. 

The dipsomaniac is a very sick individual. Treat 
him as such and you will save yourself many conscien- 
tious regrets hereafter. 

Every inmate of the Institute liked John Candor and 
rejoiced over his speedy recovery. 

John did nothing by halves, so he forced people to 
like him all over; no “rose-water, skim-milk” friend- 
ship satisfied this great magnetizer. 

Anna was a worthy running mate for her brother, 
and the gentle girl found a respectful admirer in every 
gentleman at the Susquehanna. 

A man upon whose speed)’ cure depended the pos- 
session of two millions of dollars could scarcely sink 
below the standard of positive fame; and when this 
interesting fact became known, John sprang at once 
into the position of ultra-heroism and fascinating 
romance. 

Every man seemed to feel himself the chosen custo- 
dian of the young heir; and be sure the eyes of these 
good fellows will follow him closely for the next year, 
all of them deeply interested in the result. 

Riches may not mean much beyond dirty dollars and 
cents when the possessor is dirtier than his money ; ill- 
looking, miserly, ill-bred. 

But give the bags of lucre to a dashing fellow, bright, 
genial, handsome, and generous as a prince, and the 
money becomes the man and the man dignifies the 
money. 

Golden eagles in rapid circulation are the blood of 
the world; tie them up in a bag and bury them in a 
cellar, and ordinary checker-men are more valuable. 


96 


KING ALCOHOL: 


There was no fear that John Candor would hide his 
wealth under a bushel or bury it in his cellar. 

Before his second week had expired, Mr. Worth had 
been interviewed several times regarding the disposi- 
tion of a sum of money to be set aside for the redemp- 
tion of dipsomaniacs who were unable to pay for their 
own course of treatment. 

The natural goodness of this man grew into expres- 
sion as soon as alcohol was driven out. 

His first thought, after his own salvation was accom- 
plished, was of the best methods to be used for the de- 
liverance of his perishing fellows. 

“New York is full of them,” he said; “men utterly 
helpless, but who only need this grand treatment to 
restore them to the manhood they have lost ; it is to the 
necessities of such as these that I intend to devote my 
time and money in the future. 

“ And what a stir I intend to make among the kid- 
gloved drunkards of my class. 

“Why, Mr. Worth, half the club men of New York 
would be better for ‘the cure,’ and at least one-third 
of them absolutely require it. 

“Yes, indeed; next summer there will be a grand 
break for the Keeley Institute; many a visit will be 
planned that will have for its culmination a four weeks’ 
sojourn in this Institute.” 

Happy the ringing in of each new day for John Can- 
dor; joyful the departure of the old. 

He was in earnest at last and determined that if 
heaven’s crown was to be won by life’s work being done, 

He would win it. 

As a reward for his knightly resolves the fair Anna 
in conjunction with Mr. Worth prepared a happy sur- 
prise for him. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 97 

And without engaging the confidence of any one, John 
prepared a surprise for Anna, the consequence of these 
two surprises being the arrival at the Blue Wing station 
of Miss Nora Livingston and the Rev. Arthur Rose. 

These additions were the occasion of much public 
hand-shaking and much private blushing; John was in 
raptures, and Anna — well, it did not take much to make 
this contented little woman happy; Arthur Rose did it. 

The train from New York that was responsible for 
the safe delivery of the lady and gentleman above men- 
tioned brought another passenger who alighted at Blue 
Wing. 

A man closely wrapped in a huge ulster; a “wide 
awake” slouch drawn down over his nose completely 
concealed his identity. 

He held a place in the last seat of the rear car, closely 
observing Nora and her escort. 

No one noticed him but the conductor, who kindly 
punched holes in his ticket and let him severely alone. 

From time to time the masked gentleman drank 
spirits from a flask. 

Then he subsided. 

At the station he turned abruptly from the crowd, 
and made his way to the only hotel open to receive 
guests at that season of the year. 

The landlord yawned, of course, as he pushed over 
the register, and inquired, “ if it was cold enough for 
him,” and receiving no answer, yawned again, placed 
the pen in a bottle of ink and water, curiously follow- 
ing its course over the slimy page, as his guest wrote: 

James Peck^ Worcester^ Mass. 

Mr. Peck was shown to his room, the door of which 
he closed and bolted. 

Mr. Peck of Worcester next turned down his cape, 
7 


98 


KING alcohol: 


threw off his hat, shook out his yellow beard, and was 
transformed into 

Mr. Mark Candor of New York. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

A PITIFUL EXCHANGE. 

The arrival of this distinguished party at Blue Wing 
will cause the reader to exclaim : 

« Nigger in the wood-pile.” 

Mark Candor certainly did not leave his comfortable 
quarters on Fifty-second Street and ride two hundred 
miles in midwinter simply for pleasure or glory. 

The secretive design evident in his masquerading 
disguise denoted that he was anxious to complete his 
journey unrecognized and remain so after arrival. 

James Peck is a first-class name when it is a lawful 
inheritance from the baptismal font, but when a chap 
picks it up between New York and Blue Wing, and 
with barefaced assurance puts it on a hotel register as 
his own property, then the cognomen “ Peck” is no bet- 
ter than a dead rabbit, and the subscriber becomes an 
object of curiosity. 

Rogues and detectives are the only individuals who 
assume aliases. 

Mark Candor was both. 

What follows will prove my assertion to be true; if 
not, Mr. Candor has a clear right to sue me for libel. 
The pride of Mark’s physical life was the oft-quoted 
blonde beard that began at his cheek-bones and termi- 
nated at his shirt-stud. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 99 

It was a curly, silky, downy mass, and its proprietor 
loved it, petted it, nurtured it. 

To-day, for the first time, he treated it with angry 
disdain. Observe. 

From a large, genuine sheep-skin, goat-skin, “alli- 
gator" satchel, he poured a mass of toilet articles, and 
arranged them before the olive-colored looking-glass. 

Powders, perfumes, lotions, pomatums, brushes, 
combs, tweezers, razors, and a large 

Pair of shears. 

For a few minutes he contemplated his soft hirsute 
appendage, stroked it fondly as if in farewell, and then 
plunged the blades of Sheffield steel deep into the mass 
of golden foam. 

Clip! Clip! Clip! 

Something less than a pound of the luxuriant harvest 
fell before this cruel attack, and lay on the bureau, 
twisting and writhing as if in the throes of death. 

Five minutes later, the cheeks, chin, and lips were 
ready for the razor, and at the expiration of half an 
hour this lovely wretch was clean shaved, sported a 
pair of green spectacles, and turned from the glass no 
longer Mark Candor of New York. 

Had he removed his head instead of his beard, the 
decapitation would not have rendered his disguise more 
absolute, and the green glasses successfully masked the 
blue eyes, the Candor eyes, that might have recalled 
to familiar gaze the old-time nephew of John Candor 
deceased. 

Mark placed his shorn fleece in a newspaper and 
buried it with due solemnity in the depths of his satchel. 

Then he pulled the bell-handle, hidden behind the 
bed, and after the expiration of a quarter of an hour 
the hostler, holding sponge and curry-comb, answered 


100 


KING alcohol: 


the ring, and stood in the doorway awaiting develop- 
ments. 

“ Is the adjoining room vacant?” inquired Mark. 

“ Guess they’re all vacant,” answered the genial soul, 
chewing tobacco furiously. 

“ Please have it prepared for me, fire built, and bed- 
clothing changed.” 

“ Don’t this room suit you?” inquired the stableman, 
looking around the chamber. 

“Yes, but I want two rooms.” 

“Two rooms! What on airth do ye want of two 
rooms?” 

“ I am expecting a friend who will occupy the other. ” 

“A man?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Why can’t he sleep with you? We ain’t got but one 
chambermaid, and she’s got to cook, and I hate to make 
beds except for bosses, be gosh!” 

“ If I give you a dollar will you stop talking and have 
the room prepared?” 

“ If you give me a dollar, I guess I’ll have the room 
prepared, but Cleveland himself ain’t got money enough 
to make me stop talking, be gosh !” 

“There’s your tip; now go and try and make me 
comfortable.” 

“ Is them your razors?” 

“Yes.” 

“ What’c in that yellow bottle?” 

“Tooth-powder.” 

“ Got toothache?” 

“No, no! tooth paste.” 

“ Paste your teeth in, hey? Gosh!” 

“Will you go?” shouted Mark; “get a fire made, 
quick!” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


lOI 


‘■Quick, hey! Well, all right; if I kin find the axe, 
I’ll split some kindlings and git Nancy ^ruce to put 
coverings on the bed if there is any.” 

“Stop! What time does the next train get in from 
Albany?” 

“Expecting any one?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Man?” 

“Yes. Answer me, will you?” 

“ If it’s late, it won’t git in on time.” 

“ When is it due?” 

“ Due?” 

“Yes!” roared Mark. 

“ From Albany?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Burned if I know.” 

“ Go then, and fix the room, and when the train ar- 
rives look after my friend, and send him up.” 

The spirited Roman lumbered downstairs, spitting 
over the banister, and wondering what “ the darned 
green-eyed crittur did with all them bottles; must be 
a doctor; wonder if he’s married; friend coming, hey! 
Two rooms — be gosh!” 

An hour passed, and at the expiration of that time 
Mark was startled by a sound in the next room like the 
smashing together of two freight trains. 

Reuben had deposited his armful of wood on the floor. 

“ Be gosh!” 

Then followed a dialogue between maid and man, 
during the course of which it was intimated that “some 
city folks wanted the airth and all the ocean.” 

After a lapse of time sufficiently long to lay a cable 
to China, the door was opened between the rooms, and 
Nancy Bruce entered, covered with cobwebs and wear- 
ing a man’s overcoat. 


102 


KING alcohol: 


“The other room is ready,” said the gentle rustic, 
with palpable emphasis on the other. 

Mark walked to the door and looked in. Rube was 
seated on the bed, picking his teeth with a piece of 
kindling-wood. 

“How’s that, guest.” 

“All right,” answered Mark. “I hope you find the 
bed comfortable.” 

“I’m tired, guest,” replied Reuben, spitting with ac- 
curate skill into the stove door six feet away ; “ tired 
out, be gosh!” 

“And so be I,” said Nancy; “when people cum to a 
hotel and wants so much done they ought to send word 
ahead.” 

“That’s right, be gosh!” 

“Here is something for 3^our trouble,” said Mark, 
handing the spinster a silver cart-wheel. 

Nancy clutched it as if it were a life-buoy, and she 
overboard. 

“ Stay long in these parts?” 

“Oh, yes; I am going to the Keeley Institute, and 
the man coming to-day is to be my attendant. ” 

“ Sakes alive! be you a retreat man? Bin takin’ hard 
to licker?” asked Rube, chewing as if at dinner. 

“Not lately; I am a dipsomaniac and have not had 
any appetite for liquor for several weeks ; but feeling 
sure that it will return, I have determined to make 
myself safe for the future. ” 

“Well, you kin jist bet all your glass fixin’s on that 
bureor in there, that Mr. Worth will cure you, quick 
as hot cakes goin’ down Nancy’s throat.” 

Nancy looked sourer than ever and more yellow, and 
Rube spat furiously and dashed ahead: 

“When Judas Perkins went up there, every one said 
‘if ye kin cure Judas, ye kin cure anybody.’ 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


103 

“Judas was as full of bad ‘corn rum’ and frozen cider 
as one of them pine trees is full of sap. 

“Judas’s breath alone would quarry granite; they 
say it killed his first wife. 

“ He drank six gallons of hard stuff a week, and 
couldn’t stop no more nor a train of cars. 

“ But Judas went up to the Institute and planked 
down a hundred dollars and said to ’em: ‘Now go to 
work and squirt gold into my hide; and if ye kin shut 
me off molasses rum, I’ll give ye my farm, and the old 
woman in the bargain. ’ 

“Well^ Dr, Hardy began on him one morning, and 
inside of forty-eight hours Judas was among the an- 
ointed, and took to spring water like a trout. 

“ That was nigh on to a year ago, and Judas don’t 
know no more about whiskey than saleratus. 

“ He’s pottered up the farm into shape for crops, 
made new fences, bought a yoke of oxen, ten cows, and 
had a baby.” 

Nancy left the room. 

“ Have they many patients at the Institute now?” 
asked Mark. 

“Cornin’ and departin’ all the time, like folks at the 
post-office; sometimes a big crowd, and sometimes big- 
ger yit; they scute up from York and all over the 
country, rich and poor, high-toned and corn-fed. 

“ A man is there now worth a wagonful of money; 
they was a-goin’ to cut him off without a cent if he had 
not give up rum, but they say he is as good as cured 
already, better nor Judas even.” 

Mark walked to the window and looked over the fields, 
across the rising ground, where stands the country home 
of the millionaire manager of a mighty railroad. 

The man who saw room at the top and went straight 


104 


KING alcohol: 


up, filling a niche in the temple of advancement from 
which he looks down on the wrangling mass below. 

Alone he did it. 

What honor is it to be dropped on fortune’s hill? the 
glory is to mount it. 

Rube joined the “ guest” at the window, and filled in 
Mark’s silence with his erudite observations: 

“That’s Frank Cummings’ up there; he’s to Buffalo 
in winter makin’ railroads and shovin’ checks into 
banks. 

“ Frank cuts a wide swathe and there bean’t a durned 
crittur grudges him his luck, fur he is chock full of 
what Parson Gilfeather calls ‘milk of human kindness;’ 
I never drank none, but it must be two-thirds cream.” 

“ Please go down now, hitch up a team, drive over to 
the Institute, and ask the manager if he can make it 
convenient to see me to-night. ” 

Reuben went out of the room with another dollar in 
his vest ; so much coin had not fallen into his slot for 
many a day; this wonderful overflow was exciting, and 
his expectorations while “ hitching up” were phenom- 
enally long and direct. 

Mark continued to gaze on the cottage on the hill, 
but his thoughts were with the owner in the city, miles 
away. 

“ Why not throw away his evil half and give the lit- 
tle good in his soul a chance to gain? 

“ Why not begin as this man of yonder mansion had 
begun, starting squarely and living by that rule; labor- 
ing by day and working while others slept?” 

Perhaps at this moment his good angel would have 
conquered, perhaps this man of inborn sin was “ almost 
persuaded. ” 

Then his eyes wandered up the mountain-side until 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. I05 

they rested on the walls of the grand Susquehanna, now 
bright and glowing in the flood of good-night sun. 

Two millions. 

His by right of testament and common law. And 
the man who was preparing to rob him of his luminous 
dollars was yonder within a rifle-shot, drinking in 
health and nerve that he might conquer. 

Yes, and drinking and feasting with the woman he 
loved, who could not take them both ; so prompted by her 
pure heart, she chose away from him. 

Wife and fortune taken at one fell swoop. Away 
fled all desire for worldly peace and eternal rest ; away 
the soft Christian meekness that once in the life of 
every man clamors for admission to his soul. 

The bright-faced angel fled ; the sun went down along 
the falling western grade, darkness fell upon the silent 
valley, and the soul of Mark Candor turned from the 
vineyards of the just man and flashed away up the 
height to the twinkling lights of the Institute, and as 
he peered through that cold young night a bitter oath 
crept from his heart and fluttered between his lips. 

Dating from this hour, the wandering spirit of Mark 
Candor was 

Lost. 


CHAPTER XX. 

“a serpent in a nest of DOVES." 

Mr. Worth, blithe, cheery, and hearty, called on 
Mark an hour later and arranged for his admission to 
the Institute. 

“I have been a periodical drinker for years, Mr. 
Worth, but have abstained of late, not having indulged 
for many weeks. 


io6 


KING alcohol: 


“My health is good and my nervous system fairly 
normal. Be frank with me, sir ; do you think it is rea- 
sonably certain that I will drink again?” 

“ If you are a dipsomaniac, yes. ” 

“Will Dr. Keeley’s treatment, as given at your es- 
tablishment, rid me permanently of alcoholic appetite?” 

“ If you have a positive desire for cure, yes ; at mine 
or at any of the institutes you may receive permanent 
cure. ” 

“ Then with your permission I will come to you for 
treatment and remain as long as your physician con- 
siders necessary. ” 

“When shall I expect you, sir?” 

“ As soon as possible, sir. A friend is to join me here 
to-night who will do a great deal of right-hand work 
for me during my stay with you ; he is to act as my 
attendant. I hope such an arrangement is not in oppo- 
sition to your rules.” 

“Not at all ; many of my patients bring their own 
attendants.” 

“Thank you. I have no doubt I shall be more 
comfortable with you than I am with my present sur- 
roundings, which seem to afford little more than actual 
shelter.” 

Mr. Worth smiled. “This is an excellent hotel in 
summer, when the guests are as numerous as the rooms ; 
in winter there is scarcely the degree of comfort some 
people would think necessary. I imagine we will be 
able to place you up yonder to your entire satisfaction. ” 

“ I will be with you in twenty-four hours then.” 

Mr. Worth took his leave of the pale gentleman in 
green spectacles and was driven to the Institute by 
Rube, who, during the intervals of spitting at the tree- 
tops, told the manager all he knew concerning the 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. IO7 

“ durned fool” who wanted two rooms, and who shed 
silver dollars as if they were china buttons. 

The Albany express came in covered with snow and 
an hour late. 

A few minutes after the train pulled in, another 
guest arrived at the Meadow House, tall, six feet two, 
broad-shouldered, well-built, clean cut, like a newly 
launched ship. 

Rewrote his name on the register, spreading himself 
over the counter, kicking away the spittoon with his 
heel, and cursing the ink as he wrote. 

“ Gilbert Dawson, Rochester, N. Y. ” 

Rube fairly groaned with curiosity and peered tim- 
idly over the giant’s shoulder as he scratched his name 
with the rickety pen. 

Unable to refrain, the hostler cleared his mouth, and 
timidly asked: 

“Railroadin’ all day long, mister?” 

Gilbert Dawson went up his full height, made a 
pivot of his heels, and swung around on Rube like a 
revolving cannon about to go off. 

“What’s that?” he roared. 

It was not so much what the new man said as the way 
he said, it that made the inquiring Rube sink down into 
his stockings and wish himself in Alaska. 

The only thing on earth the shrinking man could do 
was to chew furiously. 

“ Show me Mr. Peck’s room — Mr. Peck of Worcester, 
do you hear?” 

Rube heard, and never ascended stairs so fast in his 
life. 

He navigated upward as if in momentary expectation 
of being seized by the neck and hurled through the roof. 

The guest followed and knocked on the door which 


KING alcohol: 


108 

the trembling guide designated by a crook of his thumb, 
standing ready near the stairs to descend in a hurry in 
case of need. 

Dawson entered the room and disappeared from sight ; 
as Reuben hoped, forever. 

Mark received the fellow quietly and gave him a 
chair. 

“ So you hit the Albany train? I am glad we did not 
come together. 

“ I created a decided sensation alone. Had we arrived 
in company, the mountains might have fallen.” 

Dawson did not reply directly to the address of Mr. 
Candor, but sat gazing grimly at the speaker. 

“ Well?” said Mark. 

“I can hardly believe my eyesight, Mr. Candor — I 
mean Mr. Peck. Upon my soul, you need have no fear 
of discovery ; your most esteemed friend would pass you 
in broad daylight and be uncivil enough to omit saying 
good-morning.” 

“Ten minutes did it all, Dawson; I hope you will be 
as successful. ” 

“ Oh, I have tried everything on, and have had 
what the actors would call several rehearsals. I know 
the importance of making no mistakes, and have neg- 
lected no details of my work.” 

“ And I have received a call from the worthy man- 
ager,” said Mark. “I told him my sad story and ar- 
ranged to go to the Institute to-morrow. You are to 
accompany me as my attendant; I may need one by 
the time I go there.” 

“ I am quite willing to act as your bootblack with the 
prospect of a check for fifty thousand dollars before 
me." 

“A promised check,” suggested Mark. 


A ROMANCE OP THE EEELEY INSTITUTE. IO9 

“Just so; I never look for money on the track if my 
horse loses. 

“ If the plan fails, I am out my time, and fifty thou- 
sand dollars, while you are out two millions.” 

“Perhaps not,” said Mark. 

“Try it again, hey? I admire your promised endur- 
ance. You have good sand and plenty of it,” empha- 
sized Dawson. 

“ I shall continue to fight until the year’s departure 
settles the matter one way or the other; I find I am 
learning to be a first-class hater.” 

“ May I ask if there is a lady in the case as well as 
money?” 

“No, you may not ask,” cried Mark, rising; “there 
is your room, come. Let us take a drink.” 

Mark produced a flask from the inexhaustible satchel 
and the two spoke the old formula: 

“Here’s luck!” and swallowed, their whiskey, and 
luck with it. 

Then Dawson declared he would take a spin up the 
mountain before rolling into bed, and the big fellow 
filled his lungs, struck himself a tremendous blow on 
the chest, and raced down the stairs four at a time ; 
Rube, who was listening at the keyhole, taking in the 
entire flight at a leap, and not pausing until he was at 
the bottom of a manger and covered with hay. 

Mark emptied his flask, and refilled it from a bottle 
of case goods taken from the alligator’s mouth. 

Deep into the night the wretched man drank the 
double-distilled sin, and began again the next day, so 
that when the time came for departure Dawson was 
obliged to pick him up and deposit him in the sleigh. 

When the conveyance arrived at the Institute they 
carried him to his room, and deposited his carcass on 


no 


KING alcohol: 


the bed ; the man without one friend in the wide world 
and who had 
Lost his soul ! 


CHAPTER XXL 

I WOULD KNOW HIM IN THE DARK. 

Mark remained in seclusion for twenty-four hours. 

He awoke on the morning following his arrival at 
the Susquehanna with “one of those heads,” assuming 
a severe illness, but, if the truth had been known, quite 
able to go about. 

This, however, was not a part of the combination he 
was playing ; he desired to remain in bed, and think. 

Did you ever notice how much valuable thought can 
be turned over and put into shape while one is lying 
down with closed eyes? 

Mark had other reasons for not wishing to mingle 
with the patients; he did not want to face his cousin or 
the ladies if he could help it. He had perfect confidence 
in his disguise but preferred taking no unnecessary 
chances. 

Nor did he want to fall into that line with the eager 
young soldiers of temperance and receive the healing 
equipments of health and honor. This man was rap- 
idly approaching acute alcoholism, but was not aware 
of his danger, and like many another was content to 
drift over the alcoholic river, forgetting the roar of the 
Niagara below. 

While confined to his room the “ hypodermic injec- 
tion” would not be administered, and the time had not 
arrived when this man was to come humbly to Dr. 
Keeley and holding forth his hands exclaim : 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


Ill 


“ Save me^ or I perish P' 

Dawson, the attendant, had no such reason to shut 
himself out of the sun and keep his tongue still. 

On the contrary, it was necessary that he should show 
himself and look at others; there was much information 
to be gained, the whole place explored, and its local 
arrangement reported to the sick man at once. 

He was to all in the Institute “a great unknown,” a 
passing phenomenon ; all speculated on his sudden ad- 
vent among them, admired his splendid proportions, 
and liked to hear him laugh. A laugh is an excellent 
quality in man. 

Homely men have won the favor of kings and cap- 
tured rich wives by the sweetness of their smile and 
music of their laughter. 

This man playing for a large stake was not likely 
to be ignorant of any detail that might further his 
plans. 

He could not work in the dark, so he secured light, 
and was now ready to go ahead with his eyes open. 

First of all he struck hands with his companions, 
then put himself in direct angling communication with 
the fish he hoped to land. 

He tried to smile himself into the unsuspicious John’s 
affections. 

He succeeded ! 

Then, with marked deference and respect, he tried to 
smile himself into the good graces of the sister. 

He succeeded! 

He then threw his magnetic mirth against Miss Nora 
Livingston. 

Failure ! 

Nora was still somewhat of an invalid; the doctors 
had enabled her to leave her bed and sit in an easy- 


I 12 


KING alcohol: 


chair after her first week’s confinement, and at the end 
of the second they allowed her to travel by easy stages 
to Blue Wing, but Nora was still on the road, and had 
not finished her journey to complete recovery. 

Now this same Keeley system is a great leveller; it 
places all men and women participating in its benefits 
on one common basis. 

At the Institute, the aristocracy of brains, cash, or 
birth ceases to dominate ; for the prevailing four weeks 
the cry is “ Union!” 

“ Union and brotherhood.'" 

A union born of mutual suffering and deliverance. 

This entails no sacrifice of caste or position, there is 
nothing revolting in such association. 

The poor tramp redeemed from the sewer by the 
hand of charity, and carried gratis to this grand ren- 
dezvous, wonderful to relate, at once develops the qual- 
ity of gentility. 

All have an equal chance at Blue Wing with Dr. 
Keeley; no man receives a social black eye because the 
sleeves of his coat are glossy, or hig shirt-cuffs deco- 
rated with fringe. 

Therefore it was not the feeling that she was above 
the level of a “ Keeley attendant” that prompted Nora 
to administer a decided snub to the genial Gilbert Daw- 
son. 

Instinctively, and instinct is a reliable monitor with 
most women, she shrank from anything like a response 
to the cooing music of the big man’s voice. 

The same dread that shook poor Rube to his toe-nails 
when Gilbert turned on him with the voice of a hungry 
lion now took possession of Nora Livingston, when this 
professional smiler offered her the cadenced speech of 
the dove. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. II3 

It would not do ; the grand eyes ran the man over as 
though he were an advertisement posted on a wall. 

She turned from him without a word, without a wink, 
and entered Mr. Worth’s private sleigh, the manager 
having invited the ladies to a dash across the country. 

The two girls nestled in together and were covered 
with robes by the careful Roberts until there was noth- 
ing of either visible but Anna’s little nose and Nora’s 
great eyes. 

These were wide open. 

“Look!” she whispered to Anna as they were about 
to drive away. 

The girls saw two men of equal height standing on 
the extreme end of the long piazza. 

Their backs were turned toward them. Gilbert Daw- 
son and John Candor. 

Anna started amazed from the down of her warm nest. 

“Wonderful!” she cried; “which is my brother? I 
cannot tell them apart. ” 

Nora answered on the instant: “The one to the left.” 

At that moment the men turned and faced them. 

Nora was right. 

“Tell them apart,” she cried — 

“ Yes / in the dark !” 


CHAPTER XXII. 

THE FINAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

The sinful confederates sat together in Mark’s room 
over the parlor. Dr. Hardy made several professional 
calls on “the unhappy Mr. Peck,” and it was decided 
that the regular treatment should begin on the follow- 
ing morning. 

8 


KING alcohol; 


II4 

Mark had no intention of adhering to sucli a contract, 
and Gilbert Dawson was officially informed by his com- 
mander-in-chief that their carefully concealed mine 
must be exploded at once. 

That very night ! 

“ I am ready," replied the merry Dawson, “ and have 
made a thorough investigation of the premises." 

“You have talked with my cousin?" 

“ I have ; a splendid fellow he is, and as for that God- 
dess of Liberty, his fiancee — " 

“Stop!" cried Mark. 

A spasm of pain shot over his face as if the other’s 
words had been branded on his forehead with a hot 
iron. 

“ I beg your pardon,” said Dawson soothingly. 

“Never mind," muttered Mark. “I am a man of 
head, not heart. " 

“ Tell me, what does John Candor think of his present 
condition?" 

“ That he will never drink again ; that his physical 
nature is entirely renewed; that the Keel ey medicine 
has done its work effectually, and that he can face alco- 
hol for the next hundred years without knowing the 
slightest temptation. " 

Mark became very thoughtful and did not speak for 
several minutes; then he asked quietly: 

“Where is the physician’s whiskey kept?" 

“In a closet in the surgery; this closet is locked and 
never opened unless the doctor requires stimulants for 
a patient’s use." 

“ How will you open that closet?" 

Dawson smiled. “You forget that I have found my 
way through iron safes without the aid of key or com- 
bination. ’’ 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. II5 

• Mark turned things over in his mind for a minute 
and then s^id : 

“John Candor must drink from that bottle to-night.” 

“He shall,” said Dawson. 

“And in the presence of witnesses,” continued Mark. 

“You must provide the witnesses,” put in Dawson. 

“ Where are the manager’s private apartments?” in- 
quired Mark. 

“ At the end of the hall, the last door to the left, ” an- 
swered the giant. 

“Where does the physician sleep?” 

“In the first room on this side of the manager’s 
apartments. ” 

“ At what time will the house be quiet?” 

“ Most of the patients retire at ten o’clock. The visi- 
tors of Candor’s party will remain to-night in the man- 
ager’s office until after eleven, where a collation will 
be served and a whist party extemporized.” 

“You are well informed,” said Mark. 

“Information is one of my tools; I should be handi- 
capped without it. ” 

“ What means of rapid exit is there from the surgery?” 

“ Two doors which are not to be thought of, and a 
window opening on the piazza. ” 

“ Is that window unfastened?” 

“It will be.” 

“ And a dim lamp burning in the office?” 

“Yes.” 

Mark arose and motioned Dawson to do the same. 

The two stood before each other, Dawson calm and 
erect, Mark nervous and trembling. 

The latter placed his hands on the big fellow’s 
shoulders, and then studied his anatomy from head to 
foot. 


ii6 


KING alcohol: 


Dawson was clean shaved, wearing no mustache or 
whiskers ; his hair was cut down to the scalp. 

Mark observed all this and then said: “ You are sure 
you have forgotten nothing, left nothing undone?” 

“ I never forget ; I leave nothing undone. Carry out 
your part of the programme and John Candor will drink 
to-night.” 

“And forfeit his inheritance, which I will win” said 
Mark, turning away. 

Dawson lit a cigar and between puffs muttered to 
himself another construction of results to follow : 

“ Which we will win !” 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

DANCING AND KISSING. 

The day at Blue Wing ends just as it does in New 
York and London. 

The sun goes down, darkness falls, stars appear, and 
if on time the moon comes out. 

On this particular night, both stars and moon ap- 
peared at their proper cue, the bright light on the snow 
emphasizing the blackness of the surrounding ever- 
greens — patient trees that live the whole year through. 

Mr. Worth walked out on the piazza and stood looking 
up the valley at the lovely night. 

The voice of that bewitching scene said to him : 

“Peace on earth, good-will toward men,” and as he 
thought of the thousands perishing in the flooded 
trenches by the wayside, his heart yearned over all 
mankind, and he longed to gather these unhappy heathen 
into his fold that they might believe and receive salva- 
tion. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. II7 

He entered the drawing-room and found a goodly 
company awaiting his arrival. 

In a huge fireplace which might have received a load 
of hay, roared a conflagration of fragrant pine. 

The room was spacious, bright, inviting. 

Nearly a hundred patients were assembled, each se- 
cretly paying homage to the loveliness of the Misses 
Candor and Livingston. 

There were men in that happy crowd who knew how 
to waltz, and waltz well, and Mr. Worth’s cheery voice 
ordered the doctor, a fine musician, to the piano, upon 
which word two hundred feet began to figure various 
devices on the carpet. 

A motley company. Rugged sea-captains dancing 
with trim lawyers from New York. 

Lumbermen “ vis-a-vis” with Boston dudes. 

A hack-driver from Portland yoked with a State 
senator. 

Anna with the delighted Arthur Rose — a waltzing 
clergyman, think of it ! and Candor floating through rosy 
clouds with fair Nora, the lady a mass of flying drap- 
eries and seldom permitted to touch the floor. 

The servants gathered in the doorways or whirled in 
pairs on the piazza or in the smoking-rooms. 

And Richard Worth sat beaming on their joy even 
as God’s moon without beamed on the “ Silver Moun- 
tains.” 

Then Dr. Hardy sang the “Larboard Watch,” and 
for an encore gave the “ Old Sexton. ” 

An actor from New York recited a thrilling dramatic 
poem, and two men of comic instincts, discarding their 
own sex, came stalking into the room representing two 
old maids in search of husbands. 

Joyous shouts pealed forth, the merry jest went 


ii8 


KING alcohol: 


around as heart answered heart in that hour of inno- 
cent glee. 

In the room above, “ Mr. Peck of Worcester” and 
Dawson of everywhere, quietly planned destruction and 
arranged disaster. 

Ten o’clock found the boys ready for their luxurious 
beds, and soon after that hour they departed to seek 
the blessed physical virtue found in “ golden sleep. ” 

Special arrangements were made nightly for the 
entertainment of Mr. Worth’s visitors, and on this oc- 
casion our two ladies with Candor and Rose were con- 
ducted to the manager’s private office, where they found 
a generous supply of chicken, lobster, and steaming 
chocolate awaiting their mastication, and subsequently 
digestion. 

Mr. Worth was an early riser and turned over a great 
deal of labor, both mental and physical, during the 
da)L 

He enjoyed his bed just as he did his work, and here 
his labor found its recompense. 

On the night in question he was tired, and excusing 
himself to his guests departed to make his final rounds 
and then attempt the sleep of the just. 

Nora was thoughtful, Anna loquacious and chattered 
like a magpie. 

Talkative women with more tongue than gray tissue 
are not my favorites for a long race ; but Anna Candor 
usually had something good to say and possessed the 
faculty of saying it well. 

Her association with a highly bred fellow like Rose 
strengthened her intellect, and added silken finish to 
the splendid material used in her make-up. 

Poor Nora had received many hard knocks during 
the course of her sexual affection, and, unlike her friend, 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. II9 

missed the strong protecting power that carried the lat- 
ter over many of life’s rough places. 

She was happy now in the change already manifested 
in her lover’s character, but repeated disaster had made 
the girl cautious, watchful, and slow to believe. 

The treasure entrusted to her keeping seemed secure 
at last and safe from outside marauders, but as yet Nora 
Livingston did not fu41y trust her lover. 

Time alone could change her newly fledged hopes to 
established certainties. 

Her extreme watchfulness at once leaped to the sur- 
face when John arose and declared his intention of 
taking a “quick spin up the mountain,” before retiring. 

“Let me go with you,” she said eagerly, her face 
twitching with excitement. 

John laughed, and Nora, reassured, laughed with 
him. 

“You, sweetheart? Why, I am going to walk and 
run at the rate of ten miles an hour ; besides, it is bit- 
terly cold, and such precious flowers were not made to 
blossom in an atmosphere below zero.” 

And with these words the audacious Candor, king of 
lovers, gathered the blushing Nora in his arms and 
kissed her as a man only kisses the woman who has 
grown fast to his heart, and who is bone of his bone 
and flesh of his flesh. 

Arthur Rose, observing this interesting incident, made 
an involuntary movement in the direction of Anna’s 
chair as though he intended to follow John’s example, 
but the gentle girl checked his rush with a movement 
of her little hand and then allowed it to glide into his 
by way of compromise and consolation. 

Arthur accepted the amendment. 

“I will return in half an hour,” said John; “do not 


120 


KING ALCOHOL: 


wait up for me,” and the vigorous fellow departed to 
throw on his cap and ulster. 

After this Nora turned her feet to the fire and pre- 
tended to read an uncut magazine, while Anna and her 
pastor, forgetting Nora’s existence, began a silent con- 
versation with their eyes that ended with a still more 
expressive argument. 

Some people would call it a kiss. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

A NIGHT OF PERIL. 

Half an hour later Mr. Worth was awakened by a 
sharp knock on his door. 

The active man, ever on the alert, sprang into dress- 
ing-gown and slippers and opened the door. 

“Mr. Peck!” exclaimed Worth. 

“Yes, sir. Excuse me; I am sure you will, for cer- 
tainly you would be unwilling to remain ignorant of 
any great wrong transpiring in your well-regulated 
establishment.” 

Mr. Worth looked carefully over Peck, and at once 
assumed that he was not in a responsible state of mind. 

He knew that the man had been confined to his room 
for cause, after a wild debauch, and was in all proba- 
bility in a humor for creating impossibilities and in- 
venting improbabilities. He determined to humor him. 

“Very kind of you, Mr. Peck. Pray tell me what 
you find out of order about the place,” craftily sug- 
gested Worth. 

“ Indeed, sir, I am quite rational, quite self-possessed, 
and confident of what I state. ” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


121 


“Go on with what you have to say, Mr. Peck,” con- 
tinued Mr. Worth. 

Mark was now shivering with real anxiety; he no 
longer assumed distress. 

Worth attributed his emotion to alcoholic reaction, 
and listened calmly. 

“Quick, sir! and do not delay. Thinking that all 
was quiet below stairs, I went down to catch a breath 
of mountain air.” 

Mark spoke in a sharp, hurried tone that excited the 
commiseration of the manager, who -possessed himself 
of the patient’s hand and gently pressed his pulse. 

The speaker now went ahead in the most frantic 
manner. 

He was sincere at last. 

“ I walked out on the piazza and passed from the front 
doors to the second window on the right. 

“ / found the window open ! 

“ I glanced in, and, to my horror, perceived by the 
dim lamplight a man forcing open a closet in the back 
of the room.” 

Mr. Worth simpl)’’ adopted the formula used to quiet 
the hallucinations of the alcohol-demented, and accepted 
the story as told. 

Assuming an earnestness he did not feel, the manager 
professed horror and surprise at the singular circum- 
stance, and said: 

“We will go at once and drive away this house- 
breaker; come, Mr. Peck, together we will prove a 
match for the daring robber.” 

The men descended the stairs and entered the main 
office below. 

This was now deserted by all but the watchman who 
was just entering from his eleven o’clock rounds. 


122 


KING alcohol: 


“ And here is Wilbur, he will help us. Wilbur, there 
is a burglar in Dr. Hardy’s office; we must drive him 
away.” 

Wilbur caught the spirit of the moment and expressed 
-himself as prepared to annihilate all the housebreakers 
outside of prison walls. 

Mark accepted this evident disbelief without protest 
and pushed ahead through the “ smoking-room, ” anxious 
to end the work before his nerves should refuse longer 
service. 

This apartment connected with the doctor’s office, the 
door of which was always locked before the physician 
retired for the night. 

Mr. Worth’s office was on the other side of the sur- 
gery, the door of communication being also locked after 
hours. 

As I have already said, one-half of these doors were 
of glass, an old contrivance modernized. 

Mark glided to the transparent obstruction and started 
back in well-assumed terror. 

For the first time since Peck came to him the man- 
ager became interested if not startled. 

There was indeed a light in the office ! 

Mark did not give him long to surmise or reason. 

“ There, there!” he cried, “ take him away! Don’t let 
him kill me.” 

What a superb actor was lost to the legitimate stage 
when Mark Candor took up professional villany ! His 
exhibition of terror was masterly. 

He clung to Mr. Worth as if that gentleman was 
Candor’s two millions and about to vanish. 

He clutched Wilbur’s hand like a compound cotton- 
press ; he shook like one in an ague. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 23 

The men tried to soothe him and drew him toward 
the closed door. 

He held back for a brief time, and then allowed 
himself to be drawn forward. 

“Now, see,” said the manager, “there is no one 
there.” 

The three men placed their eyes before the glass. 

Then Mark sank to his knees and crawled from sight 
unobserved. 

Master and man remained upright — 

Frozen with surprise. 

A minute before, as Mr. Worth and party entered the 
smoking-room, Anna, Nora, and Rose, seated in the 
manager’s office, threw up their heads and listened. 

“What was that?” inquired Nora, tossing away her 
book and frowning. 

They heard the sound of breaking wood in the sur- 
gery. 

“Some one kindling a fire in the doctor’s stove,” 
suggested Rose. 

It was a thought mentally disallowed by all; even 
Rose knew otherwise; but at such times a man feels 
called on to say something if he wishes to be regarded 
as an authority. 

The trio sat in silence, the lovers hand in hand, Nora 
with her ear turned to catch the next sound. 

For a moment all was still. 

Then a cry of horror. Manager Worth’s voice. 

The three darted to the glass sash and looked across 
at the opposite door. 

Pressed closely against the panes, they saw the face 
of Worth and beside him Wilbur. 

The two were staring in dismay at something in the 
room. 


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KING alcohol: 


The women and their companion peered eagerly in 
the direction indicated by the opposite line of eyes, and 
saw standing under the light 

John Candor. 

John Candor holding in one hand a flask of liquor and 
with the other pressing a glass to his lips. 

The watchman’s duplicate key clicked in the lock. 

Flask and tumbler fell to the floor, and with a bound 
like a hunted deer Candor sprang through the open 
window. 

But not quicker than Nora Livingston darted through 
the door of the manager’s room, opening on the piazza. 

Women who are in earnest generally accomplish 
their purpose, and the light-footed girl gained on her 
fleeing lover. 

Behind her thundered the manager and his officer. 

“ Quick !” he cried ; “ we may save him yet. ” 

The man now made a fatal but necessary pause be- 
fore a five-barred fence, the pause that athletes are 
obliged to make ere taking their leap. 

Just a slight cessation of flight, and then he vaulted, 
or tried to vault. 

Nora leaped forward six feet, and fastened her fin- 
gers in his coat-collar. 

Their hot, panting breath mingled as the momentary 
struggle began ; his redolent with the fumes of the fatal 
draught just taken. 

Then they fell together in the snow. The brave girl 
received a cruel blow on her face from the man’s 
clinched fist, but the Spartan maid only tightened her 
hold. 

Then Richard Worth gave an exhibition of quick- 
ness and strength as welcome as unexpected. 

With one hand he quickly drew away the bleeding 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 25 

girl, and with the other clinched Candor’s wrist and 
dragged him to his knees. 

The desperate man attempted another struggle, hut 
Wilbur and Rose threw themselves upon him. 

This ended the fray. Nora and Anna clung together, 
frantic with misery. 

Each tasted the bitterness of death without dying. 

The captive quietly submitted and stood with his chin 
on his bosom panting and subdued. 

The clergyman spoke first. 

John Condor^ why have you done this?" 

The wretched man was silent. 

A white moon on the white snow made black objects 
thrown on the surface sharply visible. 

The object that came swiftly from the dark mountain 
pines cried out : “ What has John Candor done now ?" 

An exclamation of wonder burst from all. 

Side by side the giants stood. 

Exactly alike. 

Amazement fell upon the awe-stricken watchers. 

Nora’s heart spoke, and her nimble fingers performed 
their office. 

Quick as a flash the upper lip of her late opponent 
lost its hairy covering, and as the unmasked ruffian 
leaped forward, the girl’s strong, white hand clutched 
his hair and tore from his scalp a wig of glossy curls. 

The captive Dawson sprang over the fence like a 
frightened kangaroo, and with a cry of joy the gallant 
Nora leaped into the arms of her 

Astonished lover ! 


126 


KING alcohol: 


CHAPTER XXV. 

A WOMAN WITH A HEAD ON HER SHOULDERS. 

A PAIR of wild eyes from which the green glass cov- 
ering had fallen saw all this; then the pale face and 
trembling body went away into the black night, and a 
baffled conspirator stormed up the mountain road. 

In this most discourteous manner Mr. James Peck of 
Worcester left Blue Wing for the good of the commu- 
nity. 

Above all things else, Mark had impressed upon 
Dawson’s mind the necessity of his escape^ before he 
could be identified or before the real Candor could ap- 
pear upon the scene to confront him and challenge his 
identity. 

The plan was well laid and helped along by several 
accidents favorable to the conspirators, but it failed at 
the very instant of success from the cause Mark most 
dreaded, Dawson’s inability to escape, and thus com- 
plete the work he had so admirably accomplished up to 
the instant of his capture. 

In the face of such testimony, John’s simple denial 
would have only served the purpose of establishing his 
insanity and of landing him in a “mad house.” 

The lenient trustees, Redmund and Jarvis, could 
never have enforced their own wishes against the moun- 
tain of fact that would have arisen, giant-like, to oppose 
the succession of John Candor to the forfeited estates. 

This would have been the consequence had Dawson 
completed his work by escaping. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 27 

But he did not escape. 

Nora’s hand prevented this ; Nora’s fair face received 
the terrible assault and with it no thought of yielding. 

Of course at first the girl believed she was struggling 
with her lover. She believed that to let him esape in 
his insane condition, for mad she certainly thought 
him, would simply result in his plunge into some moun- 
tain snow-drift, or a leap from some lofty crag. 

And so the plucky girl held on with both hands and 
feet. She could not be shaken off in spite of Dawson’s 
terrible blows ; and to-day she bears a tiny scar over her 
pretty nose; a mark that John views with reverential 
awe ; and if at any time he is refractory, and refuses to 
go to church, or insists on smoking in the drawing-room, 
Nora has but to point laughingly to the little red dim- 
ple on her forehead in order to secure immediate obe- 
dience. 

Had the two girls suffered at the stake, they could 
not have known more misery than was compressed into 
those few moments when they believed in John Can- 
dor’s frailty. 

The relief following such a strain of woe came none 
too soon to save Nora from a relapse, and Anna from an 
untimely sepulchre. 

When despair gave way to joy and assured peace, all 
hands cast their wits and eyes about them to find a solu- 
tion of the mysterious night’s work. 

Mr. Peck and his attendant had not been visible since 
the hour of their defeat. 

Search failed to discover the Worcester gentleman, 
but in his room remained the gold-mounted “ alligator 
satchel.” 

The contents of this receptacle were turned over in 
search of letters or other papers that might serve to 


128 


KING ALCOHOL: 


identify and locate the man who had vanished into 
air. 

Not a line of writing that could furnish the slightest 
clue was found. 

Linen, underwear, slippers, toilet articles were scat- 
tered about the room, nothing more. Mr. Peck of 
Worcester left no sign, no convicting marks behind 
him; every track was covered, even those he made 
scurrying over the mountain road, fleeing from imagi- 
nary pursuers, fleeing in vain from himself ! 

The falling snow quickly covered his footprints ; the 
icy shroud came within a hair’s breadth of covering him 
also. 

Who was the man most directly interested in estab- 
lishing proof that John Candor had forfeited his inheri- 
tance? 

Our New Yorkers at the Institute did not hesitate 
long before answering that question. 

The man most interested was he who, by the terms 
of the dead man’s will, would in the event of default 
by Candor inherit the millions. 

Of course Mark Candor was at once arraigned before 
our young friends, and forced to undergo a preliminary 
examination. 

The defendant absent. 

Manager Worth was the principal witness. 

He described the now notorious Mr. Peck as a smooth- 
faced, gentlemanly person, wearing colored glasses. 

He detailed the circumstances of his visit to the dis- 
tinguished foreigner from Massachusetts at the Meadow 
House. 

He named the arrangements made for his transfer to 
the Institute, and wound up his testimony with a de- 
scription of Peck’s midnight visit to his room and their 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


129 


subsequent discovery of Gilbert Dawson in Dr. Hardy’s 
office. 

A verdict was at once brought in against the absent 
Peck. 

He was the instigator, Dawson the tool. 

But who was Peck ? 

“ Probably an envoy extraordinary of the interested 
party in New York,” said Rose. 

“ Then Mr. Peck must be found, and if possible 
forced into a revelation of the truth!” this bit of wis- 
dom came from Nora. 

“ I think not, Nora,” said John; “this whole business 
is rotten to the core ; an investigation, unless such an 
act becomes necessary, would be unwise. 

“ My past life will hardly bear turning over, and to 
fasten a greater degree of criminality on my cousin 
might reflect on our family inclusively. Yes, on my 
dear father’s judgment in having selected such unworthy 
scamps as his heirs. 

“ No, Nora; I do not think we can afford the luxury 
of running Mr. Peck to earth.” 

“You are right,” said Mr. Worth. “Besides, last, 
night’s work will operate to your advantage: you know 
now that your enemy is armed against you; that he has 
resolved to resort to the most desperate means to attain 
his end. Forewarned is forearmed, and I certainly be- 
lieve, my young friend, that the only effect of this ill- 
advised attempt against your interests, yes, against 
your life, will be to strengthen your determination 
and increase your self-watchfulness. ” 

Anna, John, and Arthur said '' Amen T to all this. 

Nora said nothing. 


130 


KING alcohol: 


CHAPTER XXVL 

A FEMALE DETECTIVE. 

But if Miss Livingston was silent she prepared for a 
great deal of action. 

The first move of the young lady was to go to the 
room recently occupied by Mr. Peck. 

She shut herself in and began investigating the case 
in her own way. 

Every piece of linen remaining was examined sepa- 
rately; not a collar or a cuff escaped her dexterous 
fingers or vigilant eyes. All the articles were new, 
evidently purchased for the trip; no name or initial 
appeared to help her. 

Then she reopened the satchel and inspected the in- 
terior. There was nothing inside but an old newspaper 
folded and evidently abandoned as useless. 

Nora removed the paper from the alligator’s stomach 
and closed her fingers over the printed sheet. 

Something inside resisted the delicate pressure, and 
the young lady proceeded to explore. 

She placed the paper on the table before her and 
opened it; her eyes fell upon the golden beauty of 

Mark Candor s beard. 

Instinctively she grasped the fact; the truth was re- 
vealed in the object before her. Already on the look- 
out for traces of suspected Mark, her mind at once ac- 
cepted the information conveyed by the mass of human 
wool under her eyes. 

Her belief mounted to certainty, when under a fold 
of the paper she found a 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 131 

Huge pair of shears ! 

No man would carry such a weapon but for some 
particular purpose. 

Nora put the evidence of the whiskers and the shears 
together, decided that both belonged to the absent 
Peck, and that the absent Peck was none other than 
Mark Candor of New York. 

As yet, however, her suspicions lacked positive con- 
firmation; links were missing. 

She could not swear to the beard, but was working 
out a very useful chain of evidence. 

Mr. Worth described the absconding Peck as a man 
destitute of beard. 

Well, a beard was palpable to her sight, a beard that 
had in all probability been cut from Peck’s face. 

• She put the shears and the hair together, folded the 
paper around them, and left the room, to place the 
lucky find in a secure corner of her trunk. 

Mr. Worth five minutes later saw the lithe creature, 
clad in rubber boots and sealskin, striding down the 
avenue leading to the village. 

The gentleman shouted a hearty salute, and Nora 
turned, kissed her pretty fingers, and forged ahead 
without pausing. 

Ten minutes later she marched into the parlor of the 
Meadow House and inquired for the landlord. 

Nancy Bruce, with a dishcloth in each hand, appeared 
and informed her the landlord was “abed.” 

“ Please send the clerk to me, then.” 

Nancy, after considering the request for a minute, 
went in search of the only man about the preniises, and 
after a reasonable delay Rube stumbled over the door- 
mat and stood before the impatient Nora. 

“Are you the clerk, sir?” she inquired, 


132 


KING alcohol: 


Reuben expectorated over his shoulder and looked in 
wonder at the questioner. 

During his sojourn at the Meadow he had been called 
everything but “clerk.” He rather fancied the new 
dignity, however, and answered: 

“S’poseso.” 

“ I am here in order to learn if a friend of mine has 
been with you during the last few days. Can you give 
me any information?” 

“A friend of yourn?” 

“Yes.” 

“Woman?” 

“ No, a man.” 

“ Be gosh ! there were two men here day before 
yesterday, but I don’t know as they was friends of 
yourn.” 

“ Do you remember their names?” 

Reuben scratched his nose with his thumb-nail and 
answered : 

“ I never knowed their names. ” 

“I suppose they registered when they came here,” 
said Nora. 

“ S’pose so.” 

“ Bring me your register, please. ” 

Reuben’s consternation at this demand culminated 
in a catastrophe. 

He swallowed his tobacco. 

Before the disastrous effects consequent upon such an 
accident could be manifest, Nora opened her pocket- 
book and drew forth a long green five-dollar bill, and 
handed it to the other. 

The man of many offices at once recovered his pres- 
ence of mind. He was fond of tips; quarters and half- 
dollars sometimes came his way during the summer 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 33 

months when city folks were plenty as whortleberries, 
but five dollars all in a lump was a strike made but once 
in a lifetime. 

“ Five dollars !” At the mandate of this most generous 
young princess, he would have lifted the snoring land- 
lord from his bed, and deposited him in a snow bank. 

His long legs measured six feet at a stride, and inside 
of thirty seconds the “ register” was snatched from the 
office desk and banged down on the parlor table. 

“Now leave me, please,” said Nora. Rube glanced 
diplomatically in the direction of Nora’s pocketbook; 
he was prepared for surprises, and would not have fallen 
in a fit had the lady issued a second edition of her read- 
able paper. 

As soon as Nora found herself alone, she closed the 
door and looked for the key. 

This was not in the lock, so taking the register under 
her arm she placed a chair against the door and seated 
herself in it; much to the chagrin of Rube, who had 
turned at the sound of the closing door and placed his 
eye at the keyhole. 

Nora rested the book on her knees and opened it at 
the desired date, two days old. 

She carefully scrutinized the names recorded. Reu- 
ben was right: there were two names, and only two, 
written on the page before her.. 

James Peck, Worcester, Mass. 

Gilbert Dawson, Rochester, N. Y. 

Peck had been assigned to No. 6 and Dawson to 
No. 8. 

To the last name inscribed in the register the young 
lady paid little attention, but fastened her eyes eagerly 
on the bold signature of the man from Massachusetts. 

She uttered no sound, no exclamation of joy or sur- 


134 


KING alcohol: 


prise, but as she continued to gaze a flame denoting 
feminine rage began to glow on her fair face, and her 
parted lips fell together over her white teeth. 

Nora was mad. 

Again she drew from her pocket the repository of 
cash, and this time extracted a folded paper. 

This she opened and eagerly scanned. It was a let- 
ter, a love-letter — an ardent appeal from a love-stricken 
man. It was dated a year back and signed 

“ Mark Candor. ” 

This signature she quickly compared with the name 
of Peck written in the register. With a swift, dexterous 
motion of her hand and arm the glowing girl tore the 
page from the book and put it in her pocket, and after 
overthrowing Reuben in the hallway strode from the 
house out into the falling night. The girl with a head 
on her shoulders ! 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE DUEL IN THE SNOW. 

As the afternoon began to thicken into night John 
Candor looked down the long avenue of naked trees, 
anxious for Nora’s appearance. 

He took a few turns up and down the piazza, then 
snatching his great-coat from the rack inside the door, 
started down the road, a little anxious at his sweet- 
heart’s prolonged absence. 

When the light-footed girl departed from the Meadow 
House she took the path across the hills, upon one of 
which stands the Cummings mansion. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 35 

After reaching the summit Nora paused for a mo- 
ment’s rest, and to snatch a glimpse of hoary Mt. Eliz- 
abeth, still visible through the half-born night. 

Startled at the rapid approach of darkness she has- 
tened onward in the direction of the lonely mountain 
road. 

This she reached where a bridge crosses a rushing 
stream, and on the stone-work of the span she sat for a 
moment, palpitating, glowing, and a little tired. 

Nora looked down at the bright waters and heard 
their everlasting song ; the sound was peace, rest, con- 
tent. 

The grinding of a stone under a heavy boot startled 
her into turning in the direction of the sound. 

A pair of broad shoulders towered above her; a pair 
of strong arms caught her and held her close. 

One moment she quietly and not unwillingly sub- 
mitted; the next brought mad terror to her soul, for 
Nora found herself in the embrace of 

Gilbert Dawson ! 

The frightened girl lived ten years of horrors in the 
ten seconds the fierce bravo held her in his strong arms. 

Ten seconds, certainly not longer, for John Candor 
came down on them like a thunderbolt, tore the faint- 
ing girl from the ruffian’s arms, and struck him twice 
before he could wink once. 

He seated his living treasure on the stone wall of the 
bridge and pressed her burning temples with the soft, 
cold snow. 

Nora needed nothing more, and quickly regained her 
courage and her feet. 

She took a firm hold of her lover’s arm, and gloried 
in the delicious sense of protection found in that sub- 
stantial mass of bone and muscle. 


136 


KING alcohol: 


Dawson had risen from the snow-bank on which he 
so suddenly sat down, and now stood before them, erect 
and composed. 

He described a half-circle in the road and thus placed 
himself between the lovers and the Institute. 

“ Stand out of the way, you cowardly cur, or I’ll down 
you again, and harder next time, be sure of that!” 
cried John. 

“You struck me unawares,” answered the ruffian, 
“ and I do not think that under fair conditions you can 
put me down or save yourself from the thrashing I am 
going to give you.” 

John gently removed Nora’s hand from his arm, and 
seated her as before. 

“ Do not be afraid. Miss Livingston ; I only regret 
that you will be obliged to witness the opening of our 
road to the Institute; I will not detain you long, and 
promise to remove the obstruction in a manner both 
expeditious and scientific. ” 

And so these gladiators stood, face to face, foot to 
foot, ready for their duel in the snow. 

The men were evenly matched so far as physical con- 
ditions were concerned, and both possessed the modern 
accomplishment of being able “to put up their hands.” 

John wished to avoid this encounter for Nora’s sake; 
he was not a pugilist and had that true feeling of gen- 
tility which makes it an unpleasant task to display 
combative physical prowess in the presence of a lady. 

“Will you stand aside and allow this lady to pass?” 
said John quietly. 

“No!” answered Dawson; “I’m going to whip you 
first and kill you afterward, and I want a witness to the 
proceeding. ” 

Nora uttered a cry of dismay. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 37 

“Don’t be alarmed, Miss Livingston, this jail-bird 
shall soon be at your feet asking forgiveness.” 

Without a word of warning Dawson led with his 
right, straight from the shoulder; Candor ducked under 
the blow and, as he recovered, “ upper cut” his man with 
a force that made every tooth in his jaws rattle. 

Dawson drove his right straight against Candor’s 
heart, and the punishment sent our lad back a step or 
two. 

Nora sickened with terror. 

Then Dawson, following up his advantage, quick as 
lightning led his right and left straight out. 

John ducked under one blow, and “countered” the 
other. 

Dawson rushed and slugged, and Candor watched him 
coolly and avoided the blows with quick, light leaps 
to the rear. 

Maddened at his failure, Dawson opened his guard 
for a moment, and tried to close; this was Candor’s 
chance and he saw it. 

Dropping his right our hero threw his left with ter- 
rible force against Dawson’s unguarded face; then be- 
fore the latter could recover John swung his right and 
let his body go with it. The bunch of fives landed 
directly under Dawson’s ear. 

One moment the bully stood and clutched at the air; 
then like a great tree he swayed forward and fell on 
his face in the snow. 

Candor quickly arranged his disordered clothing and, 
offering his arm to Nora, quietly said: 

“Now, Miss Livingston, let us go to supper.” 

Ten minutes later he returned with Arthur Rose to 
secure the defeated pugilist. 

Dawson had disappeared I 


138 


KING alcohol: 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE LIGHT FOLLOWS HIM. 

The remaining days of seclusion from the world 
necessary passed like a happy dream to John Candor 
and his Institute associates. 

Mr. Worth was ever at hand with some charming 
scheme for the entertainment of his patients and their 
visitors. 

Several of the gentlemen brought their wives with 
them, and the hundred inmates of this splendid home 
lived together as brothers and sisters, sharing each 
other’s joys and sorrows, cheering the despondent, and 
laughing with those who found a blessed realization of 
hopes long deferred and at times lost altogether. 

The approach of the Keeley patient to positive cure 
is a gradual one. 

When we think of the utterly disorganized condition 
of the men who come to Blue Wing for treatment, it is 
scarcely a matter of wonder that they do not in a day 
attain a normal state of mind and body. 

John Candor did not now indulge in idle moments, 
those sad decayers of a man’s progressive vitality. 

We are ever pulling ahead or relapsing in our men- 
tal and physical condition. The indulgence in sloth 
to-day carries us backward and we forfeit the attain- 
ments of yesterday. 

John Candor progressed rapidly, paying strict atten- 
tion to “Keeley laws,” and improving his spare hours 
with study or physical work in the open. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 1 39 

And during his four weeks of probation seventy 
renewed believers went forth to fight the good fight and 
send others to drink at the golden fountain. 

To-day that silent, noble work of redemption is go- 
ing forward, as it will go forward to the end of all time. 
Its blessings will be felt throughout eternity. 

And now Candor and his mates stood on the piazza 
of the Susquehanna for the last time, prepared to de- 
part from the ministering care of Manager Worth. 

Robert dashed up with the sleigh filled with the skins 
of the mountain bear and prairie buffalo. 

The patients gathered around the parting guests, 
ready to speed and cheer them. 

All had known the good-will of John Candor; many 
had felt the weight of his bountiful hand and heart. 

The manager took the two young girls in his arms 
and kissed them almost as tenderly as he has so often 
kissed his loved wife and charming daughters, now far 
away. 

At this the patients cheered, and of course the girls 
blushed. 

Then the handsome young doctor came forward. He 
was allowed to kiss the young ladies also on the back 
of their gloves. 

Another cheer. 

Hands were clasped all around, murmured blessings, 
slaps on the back, “Good-by, old boy, God bless you!” 
and amid a perfect storm of acclamations John Candor 
was whirled away, leaving the robes of the dipsomaniac 
behind him, but taking with him a bounteous portion of 

The light that never fails ! 


140 


KING alcohol: 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

KING ALCOHOL. 

Eleven months later Mark Candor returned from a 
reputed trip to Europe. 

Latham stated his belief in the most emphatic terms 
when he declared that “ the gentleman had never left 
New York, but had been spying around Mr. John.” 

His old rooms were prepared for him, and without 
the slightest degree of embarrassment this undaunted 
irrepressible took possession. 

“I like his cheek,” muttered Latham when John 
laughingly told the old butler that his cousin “was 
about to pay them a short visit.” 

Anna thought his return an act of assurance and cold- 
blooded audacity, but John smiled away her frowns; 
for he had it in his brave, kind heart to feel for the 
man who was about to lose the wealth he had believed 
his own without dispute. 

He never questioned as to the probability of Mark’s 
complicity in the Blue Wing escapade. He desired 
above all things to forget the perils of that remarkable 
transaction. 

The well-laid plans of the designers had been over- 
thrown, the designers themselves floored. He was the 
victor, and while he could feel nothing but contempt 
for the actors in this farcical tragedy, he was too grate- 
ful and happy to desire the conviction and punishment 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. I4I 

of the ill-starred promoters and executors of the wicked 
plot. 

Cn the contrary John had quietly determined to re- 
turn his cousin’s ill-will by an act of manly generosity, 
and already the family lawyer had been instructed to 
settle a handsome sum on Mark Candor as soon as the 
transfer of his father’s estate had been made. 

No one knew of this but the young heir and the law- 
yer. In the event of its publicity Anna would rebel, 
pv'rhaps weep, and Nora positively resort to firearms or 
dynamite. 

He would not tell Mark because he did not desire to 
pose before his cousin as his patron, or place him in 
the position of a pensioner. 

Had John read correctly the heart of this scheming 
fraud, he would hardly have troubled himself to advance 
his worldly interests, or delicately cater to his sensitive 
feelings. 

So Mark stalked back into the abode of kindly hos- 
pitality, the devil still in his heart, and the glory of 
his golden beard returned. 

This man had changed in one respect, however, and 
the alteration was a most radical one. 

The disease which John Candor had lost, Mark had 
found. The erring man was now at the mercy of a 
tyrant who never pardons. 

King Alcohol ! 


142 


KING alcohol: 


CHAPTER XXX. 

A CONVICTED FELON. 

The trustees, Redmund and Jarvis, were in the hand- 
some parlors of the Jarvis mansion, posing gracefully 
at either end of the marble mantel. 

These extensive apartments were thrown open and 
illuminated for the first time since the trustee became 
that most interesting of all men, “ a widower. ” 

The two gentlemen were in evening dress and evi- 
dentl)’’ expected company. 

Redmund, the aggressive, paced the floor with meas- 
ured strides. Jarvis stood before the fire listening 
meekly to the declaration of his coadjutor. 

“The hour has arrived, Jarvis, when we, the execu- 
tors of the Candor estate, must prepare to perform the 
duty imposed upon us by the will. 

“Two years ago the conditions of that will were 
made known. The question now to be decided is : Who 
is the lawful heir?” 

“ I did not know that you entertained a doubt of that, ” 
said J arvis. 

“ You, of course, will say,” continued Redmund, “ that 
John Candor is the lawful legatee, and of course I am 
delighted to agree with you. 

“John, in our opinion, has complied with the condi- 
tions of the will, and has not taken alcoholic drink for 
the term of twelve months. So far, so good. I believe 
him to have abstained; so do you. Yes, we know it. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 143 

His nearest friends can vouch for his total abstinence, 
so far as they know. But have you ever thought that 
vrhen the will is offered for probate, serious objections 
may be thrown in the way of John’s succession?” 

“ By whom may these obstructions be offered?” in- 
quired J arvis. 

“By Mark Candor, of course.” 

“ What will he do?” 

“I don’t say will do, but may be able to do. He 
may throw the burden of proof on us and force us to 
prove to the satisfaction of the courts that John has not 
drank during the time of probation. 

“We are willing to accept the spirit of the will as its 
legal interpretation. We are willing to accept as posi- 
tive evidence the young man’s word. The court will 
probably accept his sworn testimony and consider it 
sufficient, and decide, as we have done, if there is no 
one to oppose this fair and liberal course.” 

“And if obstruction is offered by Mark Candor?” in- 
quired Jarvis, picking his nails nervously. 

“ This is my reply to your hypothetical question, my 
venerable friend. If Mark chooses to obstruct and delay 
the^ course of settlement, he can do so. My lawyer even 
believes that he can tie up the estate, and force Candor 
to prove absolutely that he has not drank a drop of al- 
cohol for twelve months. 

“ Of course this will be impossible. ” 

Jarvis tried to digest all this before replying, then said : 

“ I see, and by such action bring on expensive and 
interminable suits of law, by which the two millions 
would melt in the crucibles of our legal representatives 
and their antagonists.” 

“You have touched the proper key, Jarvis, and must 
agree with me in thinking that, after all, our man is 


144 


KING alcohol: 


not to have so much of a walk-over as we believed he 
would. ” 

“ Then John is in his cousin’s power?” 

“ To a degree, yes, and doubtless Mark Candor has 
found this out before now. I have every reason to be- 
lieve that he will either obstruct the work of settlement 
or demand a compromise.” 

“Then let us compromise,” said the sensible Jarvis, 
who dreaded legal pugilism. 

“ Certainly, if the fellow is reasonable. It is always 
better to eat than fight. We shall see. Ah! here are 
the arrivals,” and the worth)’’ coadjutors, assuming 
the dignity of Roman emperors, drew themselves up- 
right and prepared for the important work of the even- 
ing. 

A carriage rattled up to the door, and disgorged Nora 
and John, Anna and Rose. 

The inseparables advanced in good order up the steps, 
and as soon as the portals of Castle Jarvis were thrown 
open they invaded the hallway and stormed the hospit- 
able-looking parlors. 

They formed a jolly party, the new-comers and their 
hosts. John was as full of animal spirits as a cojt in 
the paddock; while the others, drawing fun from his 
never-failing fund of wit and humor, bubbled over with 
happiness and conducted themselves more like the early 
arrivals at a ball than men and women called together 
to listen to a decision affecting most seriously the future 
of them all. 

Next came Mark Candor, bowing with gentlemanly 
ease, not a trace of the loser on his face, not a sign that 
he was there as a subordinate actor -in the drama about 
to be enacted. 

A prominent lawyer came with Mark, who, after be- 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. I45 

ing presented in due form, sank into a seat and assumed 
a careless indifference to his surroundings. 

Yet this man was the keenest and most watchful in- 
dividual in the room. 

Lawyer Sharp began the evening’s work. He stated 
that the meeting was merely a preliminary one, and to 
a great extent informal and unofficial. 

“ After we have talked over the matter of the suc- 
cession we will refer the whole matter of final set- 
tlement to the judiciary, which will be a mere for- 
mality.” 

Lawyer Prod said nothing in reply. The trustees 
would have given five thousand dollars each to know 
what was passing in his fertile mind. 

Redmund arose and in his hearty manner assumed 
everything as settled as a matter of course. He con- 
gratulated John Candor on the successful termination 
of his year of probation, and in the end hailed him as 
the heir to his father’s millions. 

Jarvis spoke in the same vein, his speech implying 
little more than a “me too” argument, and a perfect 
agreement with Redmund’s views. 

John Candor next addressed the interested spectators, 
and spoke in his own frank, manly way, claiming no 
credit for himself, and gratefully referring to the pow- 
erful system of cure that had enabled him to withstand 
every temptation, and carried him successfully to the 
issue of his final trial. 

Then there was a slight^ pause in the proceedings. 

At last Lawyer Sharp, who had been looking over a 
copy of the Candor will, put a leading question to John: 

“ Have you complied with the conditions contained 
in your father’s will, Mr. Candor?” 

“ I have,” replied John. 


146 


KING ALCOHOL; 


“ For the term of one year have you totally abstained 
from alcoholic drink?” 

I have ^ so help me God T 

Anna rushed across the room and kissed her brother. 
Nora wanted to do the same, but concluded to wait for 
a more fitting occasion. 

“That settles it!” thundered Redmund, bringing his 
big hand down on the shoulder of the shrinking Jarvis, 
who saw the love-pat coming, and tried to dodge it. 

“ Not quite ^ I think r 

Lawyer Prod spoke for the first time. He was smiling 
at his client now, and Mark was smiling back at him. 

“ I would like to inquire if Mr. John Candor is pre- 
pared to furnish actual proof that he has complied with 
the terms of this will in having abstained as is therein 
provided?” 

Prod articulated each word distinctly. His enuncia- 
tion was as clear -as a bell, his voice as incisive as the 
edge of a razor. 

Redmund, Jarvis, and Sharp were prepared, in a 
measure, for this question of the opposition. It fell on 
the others like a thunderbolt. 

The quick mind of Anna suggested the thought, 
“ How can he prove it?” 

As usual when in trouble she now permitted her 
hand to be made a prisoner by the gentle clutch of her 
pastor. 

John Candor sat without replying. For the first 
time, he realized the difficulty of his position. 

During the last year he could have swallowed alco- 
hol, and no man have witnessed the act, and now, even 
with the two million of dollars to stimulate his intel- 
lectual effort, he could see no possible chance of pre- 
senting the positive proof of his total abstinence. 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 


147 


John began to wonder if, after all, this was a question 
that would have to be settled by judges and lawyers. 

The weak point of old Candor’s testament was now 
apparent to all, and Sharp, who had drawn the will, be- 
gan to feel a twinge of professional remorse. 

Prod went ahead in the same clear-cut style of elocu- 
tion as before : 

“ I ask again if my brother Sharp is prepared to sub- 
stantiate the declaration of his client?” 

Sharp now arose to the critical occasion and said : 

“ I do not think that it will be necessary. This will 
simply requires the compliance with a certain condition. 
It stipulates nothing more ; and when you demand that 
my client shall furnish proof that he has not drank alco- 
hol I demand your proof that he has. The burden rests 
with you.” 

This was a point well taken, words well chosen, 
spoken with a good accent and good discretion. 

Prod spoke in a low tone to Mark, then addressed the 
triumphant Sharp: 

“There may be reason in what you say. Brother 
Sharp, and on the other hand your claim may be mean- 
ingless. We have nothing to do with either view of 
the case, and I am confident that the regularly consti- 
tuted authorities alone can decide the question.” 

“What do you mean, sir, by ‘regularly constituted 
authorities?’ ” thundered the indignant Redmund. 

“Yes, what do you mean?” echoed little Jarvis, frown- 
ing severely. 

“ I mean that my client, who is equally interested in 
this most important decision with Mr. John Candor, 
will, if necessary, ask for a decision from a court of 
justice.” 

“ Where the money, or a large part of it, would be 


KING alcohol: 


swallowed up in litigation, ” suggested Jarvis with tears 
in his voice. 

Prod simply shrugged his shoulders in answer to 
Jarvis, and turning to his professional brother spoke as 
follows : 

“The result of long-drawn-out proceedings and de- 
layed decisions, appeals, postponements, etc., would 
entail vast expenses, and make sad havoc with the dis- 
puted money ; and even should a decision finally favor 
your client, his inheritance would come to him in a 
state of most unhappy depreciation.” 

“Well,” said Sharp. 

“ It is not the wish of my client to witness such a dis- 
position of his honored uncle’s money, and he will gladly 
agree to any plan that will enable us to reach an im- 
mediate settlement.” 

All present now saw the drift of Prod’s argument. 
He was throwing himself open to an offer of compromise. 
His scheme was a sort of 

Legalized blackftiail ! 

“I mean an equitable adjustment of these funds,” 
continued Prod. “ In the event of our disproving your 
claim, my client will inherit all the money involved; 
or, failing this, force you to attempt the impossible. 
That is our case.” 

“You mean to infer,” said Sharp, “that under the 
terms of this will, no settlement is possible outside of 
the courts?” 

“Not without the consent of my client, and he is 
ready to meet you on fair ground. 

“ In other words, he demands a share of the estate,” 
said Sharp. 

“Demands? Oh! no. Mr. Candor only suggests that 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 149 

an amicable understanding can be reached without 
trouble or delay.” 

“ Have you decided on the amount?” 

“ Of course you have given that portion of the ques- 
tion your passing thought!” Sarcastic Redmund said 
this. 

“Oh, yes!” answered Prod with a smile. “That was 
the least of our trouble.” 

“ How much?” quietly inquired Sharp. Prod paused 
a moment, and all waited with suspended breath and 
compressed lips for the reply that came thus : 

“ One million of dollars !” 

Redmund burst into a roar of angry laughter. 

Jarvis turned pale and moved away from dear Red- 
mund ’s reach. 

The rest looked at one another, almost disbelieving 
their own ears. 

Sharp alone remained cool and sagacious, and spoke 
quietly. 

“ And in the event of our refusal to entertain your 
extraordinary proposal, what then?” 

Up to this moment Mark had silently regarded the 
progress of events ; now he sprang to his feet. 

Prod attempted to restrain him. He might as well 
have tried to wipe up Niagara with a sponge. Hate 
and rage urged him on, and thus he spoke : 

“ I will tell you what then. Failing to divide this 
money equally with me, I will keep it from that man 
as long as there is a court to receive my legal papers 
or a judge to listen to our arguments. After that you 
will be welcome to the crumbs left by the legal cormo- 
rants, Mr. John Candor.” 

Again silence fell on the party. What a messl thought 
every one. 


KING alcohol: 


150 

John cut the knot with his quick, hot reply: 

“Mark Candor, I have complied with the terms of 
my father’s will. I am his lawful heir. You have no 
more right to a five-dollar note of that money than the 
driver of yonder street-car. When I became perfectly 
sure of my redemption by the Keeley Cure and of my 
ability to fulfil the conditions of my father’s will, my 
first thought was of you, my first wish was to soften the 
blow which I knew you would feel so keenly. 

“ On my return from Blue Wing, I instructed Lawyer 
Sharp to prepare the transfer of a sum of money to you, 
sufficiently large to enable you to live in comfort and 
luxury to the end of your days. 

“Your misfortunes appealed to my sympathies, your 
practical disinheritance touched the soft side of my na- 
ture ; now, your arrogant assumption of so-called rights 
appeals to the fighting side of my nature. I will not 
surrender one dollar. No! not if I spend it all in pro- 
tracted legal battles, and go down to my grave a beg- 
gar.’’ 

“ I accept your challenge, and will fight you to the 
bitter end!” 

Mark shouted out this defiance, and started to leave 
the room. 

“ Stop!” 

The tall figure of Nora Livingston, straight and sup- 
ple as a beautiful young poplar, towered over gentle 
Anna, seated by her side. 

All eyes turned to her. 

“ Stop!” 

At her command the furious Mark obeyed. 

“ If you accept the challenge of legal warfare with 
your cousin, your side of the fight will take place inside 
the walls of a prison.” 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 15I 

Instantly Mark ran over in his mind all he had done, 
reviewed his responsibility, and grew confident. 

“Indeed!” he said; “what law have I outraged, fair 
lady, that I should be cast into a prison cell, away from 
the world and from you?” 

Mark tried to be sarcastic, but the attempt confounded 
him ; there was so much anger in his speech that the 
penetrating venom was lost. 

Nora now blazed forth : 

“You have conspired with another to deprive John 
Candor of his inheritance. Conspiracy is a state prison 
offence.” 

“An offence of which I have never been guilty,” 
laughed Mark. 

“ Guilty by the law of God and man r cried Nora. 

“ With your hired brother assassin, you conspired to 
ruin John Candor. With him you burglarized the 
Keeley Institute at Blue Wing.” 

Mark made a praiseworthy effort to smile. It was a 
ghastly failure, a very pale smile; then he stammered: 

“I — have — never — been to Blue Wing.” 

Nora drew two papers from the feminine repository 
dangling at her belt. 

“ Behold the proofs of your falsehood, your handwrit- 
ing in the register of the Meadow Hotel.” 

Then she opened a newspaper, and held aloft that 
“golden fleece,” carefully guarded for this supreme 
moment. 

“ See the beard you cut from your face in room No. 
6, Meadow Hotel, and behold the shears with which 
you cut it.” 

“ Take off the hair now adorning your pale, wicked 
face, and Manager Worth will swear it was you who 
invaded the Keeley Institute at Blue Wing, and will 


KING alcohol: 


152 

send you to state prison for burglary and conspiracy, 
not as — 

“James Peck of Worcester, but as Mark Candor of 
New York!'' 


CHAPTER XXXI. 
good-by! sweethearts, good-by! 

“All is well that ends well,” and John makes his 
final bow to you, kind reader, a very happy man. 

Cousin Mark, by the advice of Lawyer Prod, con- 
cluded to keep as far away from judges and juries as 
possible, that astute practitioner securing for him a 
yearly income sufficiently large to keep him from theft 
or beggary. 

For six months he drank like a beaver, and at last 
crawled to the Institute, humbled and abashed. Man- 
ager Worth and Dr. Hardy worked patiently over the 
remains of his body and soul, and sent him away fitted 
to become a useful member of society. 

He went to Texas, married a Mexican girl with some 
money,, and he will undoubtedly get through the world 
and earn his coffin without much trouble. 

Redmund and Jarvis determined that while alcohol 
did no positive harm to them, as individuals, their ex- 
ample was pernicious to others who could not success- 
fully handle the treacherous element of sin. 

Both trustees swore off. 

Then these two moderate drinkers found themselves 
buried in a very deep cavity. 

They discovered they had undertaken a task dis- 
agreeable, and almost impossible. The habit of thirty 


A ROMANCE OF THE KEELEY INSTITUTE. 153 

years could not be abandoned without causing friction 
and discontent. 

Redmund became irritable beyond endurance, and 
even his happy little friend gained the name of 
“ Cranky Jarvis. ” 

One day Redmund packed his grip, said good-by to 
the other, and started for Chicago. 

The same evening Jarvis ordered his linen to be 
packed and informed his weeping housekeeeper that 
he was off for Europe. 

Twenty-four hours later the two worthies met in the 
“line” at the Susquehanna Institute, and were cured 
together, and never relapsed, although Redmund al- 
ways insisted that he took the cure as an example to 
Jarvis. 

John Candor and his lovely wife are co-workers in 
the cause of practical temperance. Their advice is often 
backed up with necessary dollars. 

Day by day the human tide continues to flow from 
North, South, East, and West. 

Wide swing the portals of those noble mansions to 
receive the limping believers, clamoring for salvation. 

Hark to the grateful shouts of the redeemed host! 
Mark how their numbers multiply! Behold the rush 
for places in the line, that now goes on forever. 

Go to that home of rescue! Drink of the healing 
potion, God’s latest gift to man, sent through his am- 
bassador, Science. 

Drink of the healing waters and find rest, poor weary 
lost one ! 

Rest for body and soul. The road to lasting peace 
and happiness, made bright and sure by the 

Light that never fails. 


THE END. 


I 














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